Moroney Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 26 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13788. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]11.SUE MORONEY (Labour) to theAssociate Minister for Social Development: Does he support the continuation of boot camps for youth offenders?Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development)on behalf of theAssociate Minister for Social Development: This Government does not operate boot camps for young offenders. But if the member is referring to the military-style activity camps then yes.Sue Moroney: Why has the Minister said that the boot camps model as the Prime Minister called it is going well when of those who have completed the programme a massive 83 percent went on to reoffend in the first year alone?Hon PAULA BENNETT: I think we need to have this in the context that these are our worst young offenders. Twenty-one thousand are apprehended each year and of those we are dealing with recidivist offenders who are most at risk of going on to jail. The reason that he said this is that these young people were responsible for 660 offences in the 12 months before they went into a Military Activity Camp and in the 12 months after they were responsible for 335 offences which is a 50 percent reduction.Sue Moroney: Is he disappointed then that Minister Bennett replaced Labour’s successful TeHurihanga model targeting the same group of offenders which had 100 percent success rates—that is no graduates offending in the first year after completion?Hon PAULA BENNETT: No because actually this is working for the worst offenders. So these are not those who are—Sue Moroney: 87 percent.Hon PAULA BENNETT: The member needs to catch up with the portfolio. What this actually is about is those who are locked up in a youth justice facility and they are the worst youth offenders. Right? These are not the cherry-picked who were in TeHurihanga; these are—Mr SPEAKER: Order! That answer is now complete.Sue Moroney: I seek leave to table the evaluation of the TeHurihanga pilot showing that these were the very worst offenders and—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I do not need more of the description. I just need to know whether it is publicly available.Sue Moroney: It is from the Centre for Research Evaluation and Social Assessment.Mr SPEAKER: Is it available to members easily on the website?Sue Moroney: No I do not believe so. It was in 2009.Mr SPEAKER: I will put the leave. Leave is sought to table that particular evaluation. Is there any objection? There is none. It can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Mike Sabin: What other reports has the Minister seen on reoffending by TeHurihanga graduates?Hon PAULA BENNETT: Two conflicting reports have been brought to the Minister’s attention. The first is a press release issued yesterday stating that TeHurihanga graduates had “a 100 percent success rate” which we understand to mean that no young people had reoffended. The second is a statement inHansard dated 10 February 2010 that says that four of the eight TeHurihanga graduates had reoffended.What is so confusing about these two reports is they were both by the Opposition member Sue Moroney.Sue Moroney: What is the cost to the youth justice system and to the victims of the 325 crimes that were committed by graduates of the boot camp model in the first year of completion?Hon PAULA BENNETT: The cost would have been far higher if they had not gone through a Military Activity Camp because what we saw for those who did not was reoffending that was more severe and more recidivist. Offending has gone down and the severity has as well.Sue Moroney: Can the Minister confirm that the four re-offences she referred to before from the TeHurihanga model were in the first year after completion of the programme?Hon PAULA BENNETT: I do not have that information in front of me but what we have—[Interruption] Well of eight who had come out of TeHurihanga four had reoffended. They are not comparable to those youth who are in a Military Activity Camp at all because they are at a much more senior level.Sue Moroney: Why does the Government not save a lot of pain misery and cost admit it got it wrong and go back to the proven successful model—TeHurihanga—trialled in Hamilton?Hon PAULA BENNETT: Because that is not a proven successful model. They are not the same young people—they are not the same young people. Of the 23 who went through TeHurihanga they are not at the same severity of offending that these young people are. You are simply not comparing the same young people.