Harawira Hone: Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Harawira Hone: Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:652;Page:1450] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. This bill has been branded as a fresh start but it is not the fresh start we know of. This one is supposed to be about an exciting new opportunity for young hoodlums to turn over a new leaf start with a new clean slate and get a second chance. But when I look through the bill I see that it is kind of like what Annette King was saying and I suggest that some of the solutions are not very fresh at all. Some of them are already past their use-by date. 
They are a bit like Borstals which were designed in 1924 specifically to prevent crime and reform young offenders. Unfortunately 70 percent of Borstal kids got straight back into trouble again afterwards and it took the State 80 years to wake up to the failings of that system. Nowadays they call them “youth residences” or something as equally bland and meaningless. They are just as useless in terms of turning kids round yet we still have them. 
Clearly there is a problem with youth offending and just as clearly that problem is magnified in Maori society. We already know that half the Maori population is under 20 years. We know that nearly 50 percent of all teenage offenders are Maori most of them young men just out of school. We know that Maori are already overrepresented in the criminal justice system. We also know that most of the kids targeted under this bill will be Maori. So we as Maori MPs particularly have to commit to taking whatever steps are required to reduce that reoffending and to give our kids a better shot at a decent future. We need to make sure that we push for the kinds of programmes staffing and resources that will make a difference. 
We know for example that kura kaupapa work for Maori kids. We know that Maori kids respond to strong and positive leadership. We know that all kids develop well with good support from the whanau. We need to bring that same commitment to kaupapa Maori into this field as well. So it was good to hear the Minister confirm in this House yesterday—and I repeat it for the record— that “The increased involvement of Maori providers is a priority. I have made a commitment to broaden the range of providers. This will be done by consulting with both the Maori Party and Maori in general. We recognise that Maori have different needs and we will be implementing programmes that will have a real effect.” Those four statements recognise the importance of bringing Maori into the loop but they are also a challenge to us Maori MPs and to all Maori providers who care about what happens to our kids to step up to the plate with programmes that work to help turn our kids round. 
Like other Maori MPs the Maori Party also wants to decrease Maori offending and victimisation but we also support a restorative justice system. We want to change the nature of imprisonment in this country so that it actually reduces reoffending and enhances rehabilitation neither of which happens at the moment and in doing so we are not aiming to replace white bureaucrats with brown ones; we want to replace all bureaucrats with community people. 
And because I know that people will ask because I know that the media are anxious to know and because I know that the liberals are hoping we were not serious about it I might as well come right out and tell everyone that properly run there is nothing wrong with boot camps. There is nothing inherently wrong with expecting kids to get out of bed early have a wash have three decent meals a day get a decent education do some hard work and go to bed early. And if the truth be known I know for a fact as do most other Maori MPs in this House—although some of them might not want to admit it—that young Maori men actually flourish in a disciplined environment including boot camps. 
I know that the jury is still out on whether these short sharp shocks actually work but most Maori are rightfully wary of what juries have to say anyway. I know too that people have concerns about bullying hazing harassment and other practices that run counter to good learning and good behaviour but I have seen with my own eyes how short and long stints in the armed forces have changed our kids many of whom were on the edge of going bad. I have seen kids whom our community had written off as being completely lost go away for a 12-week course in the army and come back completely changed people. I have to say that nearly every single one of those young people whom I have seen leave Kaitaia has come back a better person than when he or she went in. So forget the juries and never mind the advice of the liberals; the truth is that good boot camps work. Yep they will not all be good ones but we weed them out and make sure that the good ones operate. And if they do I can tell members that I would not have any problem at all with Maori kids going to them. 
I also note that another proposal is to allow Youth Courts to issue parenting and educational orders mentoring orders and drug and alcohol treatment orders as well as the old “Home D” bracelet for kids to keep some of these kids under more regular surveillance. Although each of these ideas ain’t particularly cool they are worth considering. But I also think there needs to be some very vigorous monitoring of the effectiveness of some of these proposals so that we do not end up pursuing a policy to the point of stupidity like previous Governments did with Borstals and current Governments do with kids’ prisons and so that we can very quickly dump any programmes that have been brought in as a response to the blind panic generated by media hype and very little reality. The Maori Party will be monitoring all of these new initiatives closely so that we can pick out the good ideas and quite frankly dump the rest. 
The Maori Party faces a big dilemma with this bill because we genuinely care about these kids of ours who get into trouble. I wanted to talk about how Pita has taken kids in how Tariana has taken kids in how Te Ururoa has and so have I but then I realised that it becomes part and parcel of our whole lifestyle. We genuinely care about what is happening with these kids of ours who get into trouble—some of it very serious. We know that a lot of the proposals in this bill do not include decent research on the impacts on Maori families and the long-term effects on the Maori kids who will be chewed up by these initiatives we know that this bill is more about immediate sanction than it is about long-term rehabilitation and we know that this bill does not have all the answers—not by a long shot. 
But we also know that the previous Government did not offer anything particularly positive for young Maori offenders so this current lot can hardly do much worse. We also note that the previous Government pretty much ignored the opinions of its own Maori MPs. Well this time round the Maori Party at least has the opportunity to get something positive happening in some of these areas and we have decided that rather than just sit on the outside and throw stones we want to have a shot at trying to make something happen. We want to try because our kids deserve the best that we can give and we want to try because we are not afraid to try. Yes we can criticise initiatives that we do not like and we intend to do so but we have chosen to step through the door and at least try to involve people who can offer positive ideas for the rehabilitation of young Maori offenders. 
We know that the challenge is bigger than just youth crime. We know that society must take seriously its obligations to eliminate poverty improve living conditions for the poor offer decent education to all of its citizens create the environment for a strong economy provide decent wages and throw aside the yoke of racism that still burdens our society and limits our potential. But we will support this bill’s first reading to enable this debate to continue. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou.