Venu Menon
Wellington, July 17,2023
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced the introduction of a new offence that attracted a prison term of up to 10 years for those who “commission or reward young people’s offending.”
“I acknowledge that youth crime is an increasing concern in many parts of New Zealand. Kiwis have had a gutsful of people acting as if the rules don’t apply to them, and I have had a gutsful of that as well. The system needs a shake-up,” Hipkins said.
Speaking after the Cabinet meeting on Monday, Hipkins announced “the next set of changes that will make offenders more accountable, that will back our police with greater powers, and that will work to break the cycle of offending.”
While the new law and order package continued to focus on prevention by tackling the underlying social issues such as poverty, unemployment and family violence, there was a “sharper focus on consequences and greater accountability for offenders by tightening up gaps in the current law,” the prime minister said.
Police would crack down on those who commission or reward children and young people to offend.
“We’re told that ram raids are done for notoriety on social media and for the news, or for petty theft, but we also do know that there are some where adults, particularly adults associated with organised crime, are involved,” Hipkins said.
He said using a child to commit a crime is “cowardly, exploitative, and it destroys lives, so the consequences for that should be serious.”
The rules around social media have also been amended. Posting offending behaviour on social media will become an aggravating factor in sentencing, the PM declared, saying, “It’s becoming increasingly common for offenders to post videos of their criminal behaviour online to show to their friends and followers.”
Courts would be empowered to impose community service, such as “cleaning graffiti and picking up rubbish,” on offenders aged 10 and above who caused harm via social media.
The prime minster said it was important to get young offenders back on track and into school.
For the first time, victims would be entitled to attend family group conferences for young offenders over age 10.
“None of this is about locking children up and perpetuating the cycle of crime,” the PM noted, adding, “It’s about accountability and consequences to help break the cycle of offending.”
An additional $26 million would go to the prosecution service to help clear the case backlog and increase staffing in the District Court.
Taking a swipe at the opposition National Party and the ACT Party, Hipkins said building boot camps or youth jails for young offenders was counter-productive and would only turn them into hardened criminals when they re-entered the community.
Turning his focus to gangs, Hipkins said giving the police new powers to combat gang activity had produced good results, as witnessed in Opotiki last month where vehicles were searched, guns seized and nine arrests were made. The government-funded Operation Cobalt had resulted in 40,000 charges being laid against gang members.
The prime minister said the government was looking to close the gaps in the law around the “youth offending space,” which meant that “young offenders aren’t facing the consequences for their actions in the way that they should do.”
As regards ram raiders, Hipkins said police “go though the video footage, they identify them [offenders], and arrest them and so on.” But there are still gaps in the system, he acknowledged.
The prime minister said repeat offending had fallen in retail crime such as ram raids, though he acknowledged “ram raids are still happening.”
“I’m not going to rest until we actually see this problem tackled,” Hipkins said, adding, “We haven’t fully tackled it yet.”
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
