Government slammed for pushing ahead with boot camps while trial still under way

Opposition MPs have slammed the government for pushing ahead with entrenching boot camps into law, despite the trial still being under way.

The move came the same day that the minister in charge of the scheme, Karen Chhour, announced one of the children on the trial had been accused of reoffending just five weeks after he re-entered the community.

Labour's Willow-Jean Prime said by introducing the legislation to the House, the government had "absolutely no intention of listening to the evidence that comes out of their experiment".

She said it was "shocking".

The Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Bill had its first reading at Parliament on Thursday.

It introduces a Young Serious Offender declaration and the power to order a teenager to go to a boot camp.

A young person aged between 14 and 17 at the time of offending, who has committed at least two separate serious offences, is eligible and could be put in a youth justice residence for between three and 12 months.

Those running the camps will be able to use force to protect themselves or others, or to stop the teenagers from escaping.

Te Pāti Māori's Mariameno Kapa-Kingi said during the first reading that the bill was a "hopeless, disgusting and shocking piece of work".

"The authors are completely lacking in evidence and mindset, and basically, this must not be commended, it must be burnt down - I'm tempted to rip it up."

Labour's Willie Jackson said the legislation breached the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, the "three Ps".

"It's called participation, protection and partnership... Participation-wise, Māori do not want to participate in your rotten, useless boot camp."

Prime pointed to the recent apology from the prime minister to survivors of abuse in state care.

"One week after, the minister for children is introducing legislation to respond to serious youth offending that is tougher, more punitive, lacks evidence, goes against the advice of her officials, goes against the recommendations of the Royal Commission, has no evidence to support that this approach works, and has all the evidence for her for the approaches that do work and is completely ignoring it."

The Green Party's Ricardo Menéndez March was not impressed either, saying his party had known for a long time there had not been a successful boot camp project in New Zealand or overseas.

"So this just an ideological project with no evidential basis."

Chhour said she was not worried about letting the trial finish first.

"There's always going to be learnings to take from pilots, that's the whole point of a pilot."

The only failure would be doing "what we did before - which was nothing", she said.

"I'm not going to sit here in a few years time and have a failure of not trying anything, these young people deserve an opportunity to be the best that they can be."

Chhour also said it was naive to think that reoffending by the trial participants would not take place.

However, she said that other young people on the programme were "thriving".

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said one reoffence did not mean boot camps were a bad idea.

He would not have supported the initiative if he did not think it would be successful, "and it will be", he said.

"You've got all these people shouting it down before they even start and they have no alternative plans at all to turn that sort of juvenile crime around."

Oranga Tamariki confirmed it would still work with the young person who allegedly reoffended, but the matter was now before the Youth Court.

The bill passed its first reading. Chhour said in a statement afterwards that she was proud to introduce legislation that "builds on the success of the pilot".

"This bill makes fundamental changes to offer a faster, stronger, and more targeted response to young people who repeatedly commit the most serious offences."

She said this might be "our last chance to prevent these young people from entering the adult justice system and becoming persistent adult offenders".

"I want to do everything we can to break the cycle of offending."

The pilot finished its three-month residential phase in October. The nine-month community phase ends in July 2025.

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