Connell Brian: Young Offenders (Serious Crimes) Bill — First Reading 
Connell Brian: Young Offenders (Serious Crimes) Bill — First Reading 
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BRIAN CONNELL (National—Rakaia) 
: 
 Madam Assistant Speaker I seek leave of the House to make a contribution to this debate. I understand that the National Party speaking slots have expired. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Leave is sought for the member to speak. Is there any objection? There is not. The member has 5 minutes. Is that what the House wants? It is—Mr Connell has 5 minutes. 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: I thank members of the House for allowing me to make a contribution. I start by congratulating Ron Mark on having the courage to come to this House with this type of legislation. I am sure he did not arrive at that position easily. The basis of the genesis of his argument is simply that if our kids engage in adult crime then they must do adult time. Do I take any comfort out of that? Absolutely not. It is a sad day for New Zealand that we are debating this type of legislation but the reality is that this country has changed so much that we are now forced into this situation. 
It is an undeniable fact that so much of our violent crime now is being perpetrated by young people—kids—and we have to address that issue. We have to have the courage to address that issue. People in this country have the right to feel safe in their houses at night. We must take off the gloves as Martin Gallagher invited me to do stop being politically correct and start addressing the issues. I say to my Maori Party colleagues in the House that you have to start lifting your game as well because a lot of the kids who perpetrate the crimes are your people. I heard the leader of the Maori Party say that we need to sheet home some of the responsibility to parents. She is right but she needs to take more of that responsibility. 
Tariana Turia 
: Do you take responsibility? 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: Yes I have taken responsibility. 
Tariana Turia 
: For Pakeha? 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: Yes we are taking that responsibility. Let us share that responsibility—that is the argument I am mounting—and let us stop burying our heads in the sand. Will putting our kids in prison serve a great purpose? No it will not and I accept that argument. What it will do though is give us time to address the ills of this country. They are severe. So we need to start introducing some policy that will break the nexus of the crime rate which is spiralling out of control. In that regard I think I share some of the aspirations of my colleagues in the Maori Party and that is that we have to get people off welfare. 
Clearly there is a correlation between welfare dependency low educational outcomes and high crime rates. Unless we have the courage to break that nexus then unfortunately we will see ourselves in a situation where we are putting more and more of our young kids in prison. It is an undeniable fact that so many of our young kids on welfare are Maori. We can put our heads in the sand tonight but that is the reality. I am here trying to make a constructive contribution because it is one of those things that we have determined not to argue about in the past but we now have to address it. 
So I come back to where I started and I say again that I think Mr Mark is on the right track. It is a sad day that we are in the House discussing this issue but the reality is that it has been forced on us. One has only to look at the crime statistics now to see who is engaging in violent crime. Unfortunately it is our young people as young as 10 9 and 8 in some cases. I do not take any great pleasure in acknowledging that fact. I accept that in some ways a failure of our society has put us in that position. However we do not address it by denying it. I look across at the member for Waimakariri and I think: “He’s going bald he is without ideas and his contribution thus far just demonstrates that he really is devoid of any constructive views whatsoever in this House.” Mr Mark has had the courage to put into the public debate the argument that forces us to address what is really happening in this country which is that welfare dependency is spiralling out of control. We are now reaping as we have sowed. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Before I call Mr Mark I just say to members that a number of speakers have brought the Speaker into the argument. I do not like to interrupt a member’s speech to tell him or her that. Members should know that.