Cabinet minister Kelvin Davis has defended plans to put 12 and 13-year-olds through the criminal justice system for ram raids.
Davis is both Corrections Minister and the Minister for Children.
His colleague Attorney-General David Parker has said the plan is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights (BORA), but Davis tells teaonews.co.nz the plan is necessary to ensure young people who commit ram raids are held accountable for their actions and receive support.
“What this does is it gives the opportunity to make sure that these young people get the help that they need,” Davis said.
“So it enables the Youth Court to make decisions to put conditions on them, so that they can be somewhere or do something or make amends.”
Parker, in vetting the bill said it appeared inconsistent with BORA on three grounds: the right of a child to be dealt with in an age-appropriate way, the right to be free from unreasonable search or seizure, and the right to freedom of expression.
The bill might be legal if the benefits outweighed the harms but Parker said that “a court, in having considered relevant evidence, is likely to conclude that the harms outweigh the benefits”.
Not held accountable
Davis disagrees with that assessment, saying the previous system didn’t allow for rangatahi who commit ram raids to be held accountable.
“Before, quite literally, the kids would be taken home. Then the next day, they’d be out again, doing the same thing,” he said.
Under a law passed last year, the bill’s consistency with BORA could be challenged in court and, if found inconsistent, the matter would be referred to a select committee for review.
The process was followed in the case of the voting age law earlier this year, leading to a bill to lower the voting age in local elections but any such challenge would come following October’s general election.
Davis dismissed intervention by the courts as ‘hypothetical’ and said the government would deal with such a ruling if it came up.
He’s also committed to preventing young people from committing ram raids in the first place, he said.
“We’re trying to support whānau, support children, support their siblings so that they don’t keep on,” he said.
Proof that boot camps don’t work
“It’s about preventing rather than cure.”
National’s plan for boot camps didn’t work he said, instead advocating the government’s Fast Track solution, which aims to provide young people with support and interventions within 48 hours of their offending.
“We know that 77% of young people who are involved in the fast track process haven’t reoffended,” Davis said.
“When you consider the bootcamp situation, it’s about an 80% failure rate,” he said. “This has got an almost 80% success rate.”
“It’s a suite of things. There isn’t a silver bullet,” he said.
Davis said the government was committed to preventing crime and keeping communities safe.
“We’re trying to use evidence-based solutions,” he said. “We’re trying to do things that work.”