Bennett Paula: Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Bennett Paula: Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:660;Page:9321] 
Hon PAULA BENNETT (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
: 
 I move  
That the Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill be now read a third time 
. Others deserve to be recognised for a lot of the work that went into this bill. Some of them worked on the bill when I was in Opposition and others have worked on the bill since I became the Minister. I recognise Anne Tolley and Chester Borrows and Simon Power had a lot to do with this bill as well. They paid a huge part in bringing it together in those early days. 
I recognise the chair of the Social Services Committee Katrina Shanks for the work she did in getting the bill through the select committee. We certainly took on board some of the changes that were recommended by the select committee members after they heard from submitters. I thank Child Youth and Family and not just the officials who sat there for many many hours going through the very detailed implications of this legislation. I recognise those who have actually done the work so far to implement the bill. We heard a previous speaker talk about how these things do not happen quickly or lightly and that person is right. It takes a lot of evidence-based work and it means going back to what really does work. But a lot of this bill is of course about extending current orders. 
I also recognise those amazing people who work in our youth justice sector. There are so many of them both in non-governmental organisations and within Child Youth and Family. They work with young people in our communities and they work hard to try to turn their lives round. There is also a whole bunch of people who work in our facilities which are pretty daunting places in which to work at times. I acknowledge that I admire the work they do. It is probably the most important work we do and this bill I hope will back them up. That is the bill’s purpose. 
The bill represents the most significant changes to New Zealand’s youth justice system since 1989. It underpins this Government’s Fresh Start programme which is our rock-solid commitment to dealing with serious youth crime. New Zealand’s youth justice system is rightly regarded as world class in delivering a sensible criminal justice model for 95 percent of young offenders. But it is a well-recognised fact that as in most places in the world the system is not working for the 5 percent at the hard end of criminal offending—anywhere between 900 and 1000 young people who are on a fast track to prison. Fresh Start is aimed at giving those young people a new future. 
We have seen a weekend of young people out of control. There have been serious attacks on members of the police and the public and some of the offenders are very young. The nine Tuakau teenagers who have been charged with the vicious assault of a police officer are aged between 14 and 18. Fortunately these young people do not represent the majority of teenagers but they do highlight the growing problem of serious and violent offences carried out by young people. 
The Government is prepared to provide some real protections for the public. We are demanding real accountability from serious young offenders. We are also offering them practical help to change their behaviour and real opportunities to live happy and successful lives. This bill does that by providing the Youth Court with a toolbox with a much wider range of sentencing options. These new tougher and longer orders will allow us to make inroads into the underlying causes of these young people’s offending. But that is not the whole story. 
The Fresh Start package also supports prevention and early intervention. We want to steer young people away from trouble and say “Well done!” when a young person makes a positive change in his or her life. We provided the places for the 100 young people we saw in January on the Prime Minister’s holiday programme for young people who have been in trouble but have turned their lives round. We saw that what happened was hugely successful. We put them in front of the right sort of role models and we saw something positive happening for those young people. It was really encouraging. 
This summer we had 15000 places for young people on 1-week breakaway holiday programmes. Those young people would not normally have been able to afford something like that. They come from families who were a bit under stress and they were getting to the end of a long holiday period. They were starting to get a bit antsy and they were starting to get into trouble. So we took recommendations from police from sports clubs and from the grassroots people who brought those kids together. It was basic early intervention but we certainly saw a difference in those young people. It got them off the roads and it got them into contact with positive role models. They were with mentors from their own communities who really invested a lot in them. Early intervention is about getting to kids as young as 11 before they make choices and before they go off the rails. 
The Government is also supporting the community sector that helps children at risk. We are developing a new way of working with the community providers that are providing home-based programmes and providing really early intervention in dealing with some of our most vulnerable families—families who are really not doing too well at all. The new high-trust contracts cut bureaucracy and allow providers to be innovative and flexible in order to achieve the best results for their clients and I must say I have a personal bias because for me it is about the children. So they are the services that actually make a difference in our communities. We have heard those providers saying for 10 years that they want more flexibility and the ability to get on and do the stuff that really matters instead of ticking a whole lot of boxes. They want to be able to move their contracts around and have freedom within them. Dr Prasad shakes his head but that is because there was not that level of understanding by the previous Government. 
We are saying to people that they know what works best for their people and their communities and we trust them to get on and do as much as they can by way of early intervention. We heard earlier from another member who said that we have seen that for years and it has not worked in many cases because it has happened too quickly. I would agree in some respects. 
It is quite amusing that last year the criticism from members on the other side was that the bill was taking too long to come to the House. It was October they said. A year had passed and why was I mucking around so much? The other criticism was that it cost too much money. Quite frankly we need to put the right dollars behind it. I am talking a $152 million investment in these young people and it starts with early intervention and goes on to make the differences that are needed. 
If this Government was not backing up this programme with real dollars so that the professionals can work in the right way with those young people then I too would have concerns but I do not. This bill will make a significant difference to young people’s lives. It will make a difference to the young people who quite frankly have been left on the scrap heap of despair that leads to victims behind them and continued offending which leads them to adult jail. We will not give up on them. 
The bill will provide for longer orders. The research tells us we need to work much longer with these tough young people if we are to effect change in them and in their families’ lives. We are doubling the maximum length of the Youth Court’s top-end sentences. The maximum lengths of supervision with activity orders and supervision with residence orders are doubled. The maximum length of the supervision orders that kick in after a young person finishes supervision with activity or leaves the residence is also doubled and that is significant. Common sense and research tell us that intensive long-term supervision of youth in their communities is necessary if these young offenders are to avoid a lifetime of crime and punishment. 
There is a wider range of orders. Serious youth offenders are often the product of their environment. Some families need to take greater responsibility for the path their kids are on. [ 
Interruption 
] I am sorry; the member cannot have heard the beginning of my speech. I talked about early intervention better community programmes and the investment in communities at the early intervention stage all of which this range of Fresh Start packages will adjust. 
The bill will enable the Youth Court to order the parents of these kids to attend parenting programmes. Youngsters who are parents themselves—there are a number of them unfortunately—will face parenting orders too so that they will have the opportunity to learn what good parenting is. Successful people who have overcome the most awful hardship in life can point to a single adult more often than not who has backed them showed them the way and stood beside them through the tough times. The Youth Court will now have the option of mentoring programmes for these often very alienated young people. 
Alcohol and drug abuse is behind many a criminal act. The Youth Court will now have the power to order youth offenders to undertake drug and alcohol rehabilitation and this will be backed up by new community and residential placements. There will be young offenders who fail to grasp the opportunities provided to them under this bill. Accordingly the bill provides the public with better protection by significantly increasing maximum sentences and by way of new orders for repeat offenders. 
Serious youth offenders will face more intensive monitoring in their communities including electronic monitoring and curfews. If they flout orders they will find themselves back before the Youth Court to face the consequences. This bill has been improved by the consideration given to it by the Social Services Committee. It is the sharp end of the Fresh Start programme. I commend it to the House.