Ball DarrochDARROCH BALL (NZ First): It is a pleasure to rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak on the Children Young Persons and Their Families (Oranga Tamariki) Legislation Bill. At this stage New Zealand First will not be supporting this bill for one very good reason. It is no secret that New Zealand First has made it quite clear that it will not be supporting any move in the youth justice age and the Youth Court age to include 17-year-olds. I will get into that in a second but I think I need to address a couple of things that are of concern.The first one is that this afternoon the Minister for Social Development had a briefing with the Labour Party spokesperson on social development on these matters that are going to be happening in this bill. New Zealand First members were not there. We were not invited to that briefing.Jono Naylor: Aw!DARROCH BALL: Oh you might say Aw!" Mr Naylor but this is why the people of New Zealand are sick and tired of the "Pepsi and Coke" pendulum swing that we have got. You know the Minister might not realise that it is election year next year or maybe she is just too arrogant to understand that perhaps the Labour Party is not the only party she needs to be briefing. But I digress. I will move on to the point I was going to make in detail about the reasons why we have got issues with the Youth Court age being increased to include 17-year-olds.But before I do I think I need to address the main issues that the Labour Party and the Green Party—and the Māori Party as well—have been spouting that they have got an issue with which is the provision whereby the decisions of paramount importance that are made by the State should not be the care and protection of the children. Because that is what the Labour Party the Green Party and the Māori Party are saying—that what should be of paramount importance is where that child is placed and that that child should be placed back into family iwi whānau or hapū. That is what they are saying should be No. 1 in importance. Sixty-three percent of children—63 percent—in the care system are Māori so why has that provision not worked yet? Why has that provision not worked yet? The fact of the matter is that the Māori Party the Green Party and the Labour Party—[Interruption]Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!DARROCH BALL: The Māori Party the Green Party and the Labour Party are living in some dream world where in the ideal world all Māori children should be living with their Māori family. Of course they should and ideally they should but that is not the ideal world. Those are not the facts. The facts are that we have got foster kids like Ron Mark who grew up in a foster family with Pākehā parents not because he was forced there but because the Pākehā parents were the ones willing to stand up and look after him. That is why.Marama Fox: And Māori aren't? It is not mutually exclusive.DARROCH BALL: If the tangata whenua were so keen on looking after their children why are they not doing that now? Why are they not doing that now? This is the reason why we have got issues in this country in regard to the care and protection of our children. I think that the Labour Party the Green Party and the Māori Party need to wake up come off their dream cloud and understand the reality of the care and protection of our children.Marama Fox: That all Māori people are bad and ugly—is that what you are saying? That's what you just said Darroch.DARROCH BALL: Stop that. Do not be ridiculous. Do not be ridiculous—grow up. I would like to think that I have made the New Zealand First position clear on that point.I would like to move on to another point that we are just as passionate about and that is the youth justice and Youth Court age. For the last 18 months to 2 years I have been standing up in this House in the media and in everything else and saying that this youth justice system is failing and yet we have got the Minister for Social Development standing up and saying that she has the research that backs up her claims that 17-year-olds would be better off in the youth justice system. Well I say table it. I say where is that research? I asked the Minister whether part of her research was asking the front-line police and the youth aid officers who work with these youth daily and I can guarantee it would not be—I can guarantee it would not be. Seventy-five percent of front-line police officers do not want the Youth Court age to change—75 percent. Does the Government listen? No. Fifty-five percent of the youth aid officers who deal daily with these youth do not want the Youth Court age to change. Does the Government listen? No. The Government wonders why there are accusations from the public that it is so far out of touch. And then the Labour Party wonders why there are all these accusations that it is so far out of touch.Hon Nanaia Mahuta: Oh no oh no.DARROCH BALL: Oh yes.Hon Nanaia Mahuta: You're making that up.DARROCH BALL: Oh no I am not. Hon Nanaia Mahuta: Oh yes you are you know.DARROCH BALL: No no you are right: 23 percent means you are really in touch there—23 percent.If the Minister is standing up and saying that a 60 percent reoffending rate in the youth justice system is a good thing and it wants to include more 17-year-olds with that then I beg to differ. If this Government is seriously talking about early intervention then why has it not focused at all on the Family Court and child offenders? Every single 14-year-old in the youth justice system who goes through the Youth Court has been a child offender. The fact is that currently the Family Court has no power. It has no room for intervention for the 10- to 13-year-olds. That is where we need to start focusing but this Government the Labour Party and the Green Party have ignored that fact. They have ignored it.We have got a youth justice system that is failing. We have got 40 percent of all youth offenders who are in the youth justice system who have offended three or more times. That is not a successful youth justice system. Fourteen percent of individuals youth offenders in the youth justice system have offended six or more times. The tragic fact is that this Government has stood up and talked about family group conferences (FCGs) being the cornerstone of the youth justice system. The fact is that 80 percent of youth offenders do not go into court so they do not get to the FGCs. And when they do go to the FGCs they have got an 80 percent reoffending rate—an 80 percent reoffending rate—and yet apparently the Government wants to increase the Youth Court age to include more young people so it can fail more young people.This Government is going to spend over a billion dollars on a new prison. The fact of the matter is that half of all our current adult prison population have gone through the Youth Court previously—half of all the current adult prison population have gone through the Youth Court. If the youth justice system was working and if the Youth Court was working we would not have half the adult prisoners that we do now. We would not have to be spending the billion dollars on new prisons that we are now. But instead of looking at the facts the Government stands up and all the other Opposition parties stand up on ideological grounds speaking rhetoric that is just bereft of fact. If they did have a look at the facts that we have to deal with that the front-line police have to deal with and that the people who work with these young people have to deal with day in and day out they would know that it is not the right decision to increase the Youth Court jurisdiction to include 17-year-olds.I am more than looking forward to the different stages of this bill progressing through the House and especially the select committee process because I have got a ton of questions. New Zealand First wants some answers especially in regard to the Youth Court age changes that this Government wants to make. But at this stage we will not be supporting this bill for the reasons that we have set out. Thank you."