Pillay Lynne: Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Pillay Lynne: Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:660;Page:9011] 
LYNNE PILLAY (Labour) 
: 
 I will actually take issue with Chester Borrows who is the chair of my— 
Hon Member 
: He should still be the Minister. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: He should be the Minister of Social Development and Employment; I take the member’s point. Chester Borrows is a very reasonable chair of the Justice and Electoral Committee but on this occasion I would say that he is being less than honest. 
The reality is that the Government thought the introduction of boot camps was a very popular message to put out there. The Prime Minister when he was the Leader of the Opposition spoke about boot camps constantly. It was all part of National’s agenda. It was all part of the rhetoric that we heard before the last election—that the whole country was crime-ridden and everything was a mess. People were told that if they elected a National Government then it would get tough on crime and my goodness its toughness on crime would get rid of all the problems that we had with the escalating crime rate in New Zealand. None of that was true but unfortunately—and I say that quite sincerely—a number of New Zealanders believed National. A number of New Zealanders believed that. We are in a small country and every incident that we have no matter how abhorrent gets reported. Every New Zealander is aware of it and that is a good thing; it is a painful thing but it is a good thing. 
What is not a good thing and what is a shameful thing is the way that National members exploited it. They used it to wind New Zealanders up. I saw a pamphlet from the Minister in the chair the Minister of Social Development and Employment stating: “Blood on the streets. Sick of it? We are too. We are going to fix it. Come to a public meeting.” Well those members have not fixed it. Guess what! There is still blood on the streets. But I am proud that the Opposition has more integrity than to utilise violence and violent acts against people and to capitalise on their grief and anxiety in the way that members opposite did. They did that to such a great extent. I say to Chester Borrows that I am really sorry because I get on pretty well with him. I ask him whether that would be a fair statement. 
Chester Borrows 
: That’d be fair enough. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: That would be a fair statement. But I tell this Committee that if John Key said “boot camps” once then he said it a hundred times as did Paula Bennett. 
Chester Borrows can try to cover for his boss. We never have to do that on this side but I know that those guys have to do it a lot. I know that they have a leader who constantly changes his mind as he is now doing—before the Minister in the chair tells me that I am getting off the topic—with GST and all of these things. He said today: “Hey no one is perfect. We all make mistakes.” 
Members opposite utilised grief and anxiety in order to wind up people to support a model that is proven to be a failure. It is a complete failure. National members said that they had the one true answer. They said that they were the National Party they were two decades behind and they talked about boot camps. It is just like what they are doing with education and what they are doing in terms of— 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Health. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: —health. But it is also what they are doing in terms of their latest bright idea in education where people will be whirling all around the cities to find the best place for their child to be educated. It is an absolute nonsense. 
This model was put up and members on this side of the Chamber—I say to Chester that I am really sorry about this—found it absolutely abhorrent and offensive. Now when the rubber has hit the road National has had to explain to reputable organisations to judges and to everyone else who is learned in this area. These people have so much more grassroots experience. They came to the Social Services Committee and said that the National Government had made a big mistake. They said that the Children Young Persons and Their Families (Youth Courts Jurisdiction and Orders) Amendment Bill was a crock of the proverbial. 
What did the National Government say? John Key says: “Hey we got it wrong. Sometimes we all get it wrong.” Did he say that on this occasion? No. Did National members say that? No but instead they said: “Let us reinvent the story. We are here to help. We are here to be all things to all people so we will talk about these youth camps as though they are not what they really are. They are there to help young people.” Well we know that is not the case. 
But what saddens me is that National will ram this model through and what will we see in 2 or 3 years’ time? When we go overseas people say to us that New Zealand is visionary. They say that they really admire our victims’ rights and a lot of our progressive stuff. With this model we will be an embarrassment. It is not only that—it is not about egos apparently; it is never about egos in this country—but what will be even worse is the loss of opportunity for young people to right themselves. 
What Labour members said and what the experts were telling us was that we should put the money and resources into the programmes that are working. What did National say? Those members said that they will go the boot camp way and go with military-style training. That will be their answer to all things despite the fact that we know that it is a failed model in the UK. The UK has abandoned it. The United States we know is not at the forefront on progressive things but even it accepts that it is not the way to go. In the interests of appearing to do the right thing this Government has window dressed just like it did in the—what was it—100 days of action? 
H V Ross Robertson 
: What action? 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: Exactly! That was all part of National’s thing. 
I will talk about my amendment which adds what is sadly missing. We have been able to utilise previous Labour bills that looked at the rights of victims more. Despite our opposition to the bill I would urge Government members to give very careful thought and their support to my amendment if they are committed to caring about victims which they say they are. We will not go into the pitfalls and the criticisms there but my amendment certainly ensures that victims are part of the process and that their views are taken into account. These were the standard clauses in Labour’s bill that are missing in this bill. This will not be a good bill. The Government is not in a good situation with this bill but at least my amendment will go some way towards victims being able to participate and have a say in the process when they have been victims of a young person’s crime. This Government says that it cares about victims so I would urge its members— 
H V Ross Robertson 
: Says one thing; does another. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: Well exactly. We need only look at the accident compensation debacle to know that that just simply is not true. We only need to see that the Government would not pick up the previous Government’s bills that gave far more support to victims of crime and domestic assault and that gave much more protection. Many bills that were more in-depth have been ignored by this Government and instead we see this rubbish wasting the time of this House. 
Tim Macindoe 
: You support a lot of it. 
LYNNE PILLAY 
: In your dreams! What we are trying to do is to improve a bill that is about rubbish. In a couple of years’ time when Labour members are back in Government we will take no satisfaction whatsoever from saying to National: “See that was a failure. We told you so and it is going to go.” Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Labour vehemently opposes this bill.