Smith NickHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): I want to join with my National colleagues indicating National's support for this Oranga Tamariki (Youth Justice Demerit Points) Amendment Bill. I want to give a little bit of context in the sense that I've got a real concern that the overall direction of justice policy under this Government is about reducing accountability—going soft—that will ultimately see more offenders and a poor approach to the management of justice issues.One of the things that really worries me in my home area is that in the brief three years of this Government the number of Nelson people completing and attending their community sentences has dropped from 76 percent to just 18 percent—that is just 18 percent of people committed to community sentences are actually turning up and doing that work and that's before COVID in which my colleague Simeon Brown has exposed the way in which the Government is just writing off huge numbers of sentences for people that have committed offences.Now National is interested in a demerit approach for youth offenders. National's not a party that has a lock 'em up throw away the key" sort of mentality. We do believe in accountability. We do believe that where people do the crime they do the time but we are also very aware of how important it is in the youth justice area to take a smart and sophisticated approach to youth justice issues. I think all of us who represent constituencies in this Parliament are aware that across the group of youth offenders you have got some that go off the rails a bit commit a single offence and with a smart intervention by our youth police liaison officers you can get them back on to the road reasonably quickly. But where I think there is a real concern is where you have these hardened youth offenders that time and time again get caught up in the merry-go-round of the youth justice system without action and there does need to be some accountability.The issue that I will be really interested in at the Justice Committee in dealing with this youth demerit points bill is whether a legislative demerit point system is actually going to result in better outcomes for young people. Quite often in the youth justice area you've clearly got a whole mix of different youth experiences and the right approach to getting those young people back on to the straight and narrow. Now the real question for both Parliament and the select committee will be whether a demerit point system will actually improve it. I've seen and attended Youth Court hearings and actually have quite a high level of confidence in our judges. The real question for Parliament is by passing this law and having both our judges and our police that work with youth offenders are we going to put them into a points system a regimented sort of mechanical system for dealing with their offending that actually makes things worse rather than better rather than having the flexibility for them to be able to apply their professional judgment about what the right thing is to do with a particular young person?So I'm open-minded about it. I certainly think the bill ticks the box from National's point of view of having a better approach for those youth offenders that are committing multiple offences. We'll keep an open mind in the select committee. The bit that we're clear about is that we want smart interventions with young people and we will go into the select committee process around this idea of demerit points with an open mind. Demerit points can work pretty easily with a pretty straightforward "You're 10 kilometres over the speed limit you're 20 kilometres over the speed limits." in an area like transport offending. In the area of youth offending it's a lot more complicated. Open-minded—let's send this bill to the select committee hear the submissions and see if it can make a constructive improvement in the way in which our country deals with youth offenders."