Bennett Paula: Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Bennett Paula: Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:660;Page:9002] 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I am happy to address some issues around 12 and 13-year-olds but before I do I think it is important to get a wider view of this part and what it means. I want to give a better understanding of where we are coming from. We are talking about a whole package of initiatives Fresh Start for the Youth Court. It is about giving the Youth Court a box of tools that it can apply to individual young people in order to serve the different needs they have. It is about extending court orders and the follow-up that goes with that which is the most important and certainly from our perspective the most exciting thing about this bill. 
This package starts with community youth programmes and there will be 1000 more of them. Seven hundred will be administered via the police and 300 will be administered by Child Youth and Family through other programmes. The police will work directly with providers. They will see what works in their areas. They know these young people and they will try these programmes before things get to court. We are talking about 1000 new programmes that will have places for lower-level youth offenders who are yet to come before the courts. 
We will also have court-supervised programmes and camps. For example if it is not the first time a young person has come before a judge the judge can say that we need to do something different. The young person needs an extended court sentence. At the moment we are seeing a number of young people committing some pretty serious crimes. We are talking arson; repeat burglaries; rape in some instances; some pretty heinous aggravated robberies—some pretty awful stuff. At the moment— 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: It’s about 12 and 13-year-olds actually. 
Hon PAULA BENNETT 
: The part talks about a lot more than just 12 and 13-year-olds and I am happy to get to that shortly. At the moment those young people usually go into a youth justice facility and it can sometimes take 6 to 8 weeks for them to get to the Youth Court. When they appear before the Youth Court they are given a sentence of 3 months and go back to the youth justice facility but that means they only serve another 3 or 4 weeks there so there is no time for rehabilitation; there is no time to be turning that behaviour round. 
This bill will first of all extend the period of time that youth can be sent to youth justice facilities. The bill will also provide for real mentoring programmes. A judge might believe that a young person needs a parenting order. Many of these young people are actually parents themselves at that stage or about to become parents and it is important that we address that issue and break some of that intergenerational stuff. 
The bill also provides for drug and alcohol orders. In the second reading we heard some angst from the Opposition about drug and alcohol rehabilitation and what it will actually look like. The department has been working very hard over the last year with providers who work in drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Those providers are very excited about the extra resources and the opportunity they will have to work with young people and make a real sustained long-term difference. 
Another part of the package that is not talked about much is the innovation fund. We are talking about $1.4 million that will go back into our communities; we are offering a fund that will address some of the issues that can turn that behaviour round. I know that Opposition members are concerned about how these young people get to the place where they commit these crimes and we are too. This bill is about getting some of the orders and interventions right. 
We have heard the name of one young man bandied around in the Chamber already. We have already heard about Bailey Junior Kurariki. He started offending when he was 7 years old unfortunately. He was well known to police at 10 and 11 years old. We are talking about early interventions and what we can do. I have just outlined a number of the interventions for Opposition members yet they criticise me for mentioning them. Let us try to get in early. But by the time we get to some 12 and 13-year-olds we are talking about some young people who are committing very very serious crimes. This bill will address 40 of the worst offenders. The police have asked for the bill. They are saying that these are not kids who have gone a bit off the rails. These are young people who are committing very very serious crimes and leaving a number of victims behind them. They are offences like serious assault burglary arson armed robbery rape and attempted murder. We are not talking one-offs. We are talking about determined repeat offenders who are getting more and more aggressive unfortunately as they move through the system. These are hardened young offenders whom we simply cannot continue to turn our back on. They have been before the Family Court and it has not made a difference. 
The Youth Court is more experienced at dealing with high-end serious young offenders. It has more tools and it has greater powers. Our Youth Court is a world-leading specialist jurisdiction designed specifically to deal with young offenders. Quite frankly it will take a radical approach to turn round those who really are hardened offenders. As I have already stated the police support this move. I also recognise that the Youth Court can turn round and say there are a number of care and protection issues with this particular young person and send him or her back to the Family Court. That is certainly what we want to see. I certainly have huge faith that the Youth Court judges will do what is right for those young people. I think that is what is most important. 
The Youth Court does require accountability and that is what this small hardened group of very young offenders needs. We hear much criticism of some of the current system and how we are working with those who need it most. As I have stated we will be holding them to account for very very serious offences. It is one part of this bill and it is certainly one that unfortunately we have had to introduce because of that hard end of young offenders.