Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Amendment Bill

I move, That the Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Amendment Bill be now read a second time.

When I became Minister for Children, I made it clear that we could no longer accept the out-of-control numbers of young people committing serious crimes. Every day, we were hearing stories of harm caused to victims and the impact on communities across New Zealand as a result of the actions of a small group of young people. Every previous Government spoke of the need to help these young people make better choices, to protect business owners and communities from young people who believed there would be no consequences for their harmful actions. Every election, we were told things would be different and would get better, but repeated Governments failed to deliver new solutions, failed to keep communities safe. This Government has finally delivered, and this bill will allow us to continue this important work.

This Government has delivered a 25 percent reduction in children and young people with serious and persistent offending behaviour since June 2023. Young people are making better choices for themselves and their families. Communities are safer, but that does not mean that this important work is over. We are committed to embedding this achievement and identifying opportunities to further reduce youth offending behaviour, and this bill will contribute significantly to that commitment.

This legislation will provide a faster, stronger, and more targeted response to this group through the establishment of a young serious offender (YSO) declaration and a military-style academy order. Every young person on a military-style academy order will get in-residence support with education, rehabilitative, and cultural aspects, providing a pathway away from offending and back into their community and to employment or education.

By majority, the Social Services and Community Committee has recommended the passing of the bill with minor technical amendments that I also support and will outline now. Back-to-back orders: this amendment resolves an issue affecting Youth Court responses when a YSO declaration is nearing expiry. It allows the Youth Court to make back-to-back orders in limited circumstances for a young serious offender. Section 285(5) of the Oranga Tamariki Act does not allow the Youth Court to make orders of the same type concurrently or communicatively unless a limited exception applies. This conflicts with the recommendation from the select committee to enable orders to be made back-to-back in limited circumstances when a YSO declaration is about to expire. Due to an oversight in drafting process, this did not occur.

I’m proposing to amend clause 4 of the bill to address this. My amendment is to ensure that the select committee’s changes to enable some orders to be made back-to-back can work as intended. This change is important because it ensures the Youth Court has access to consistent sentencing lengths for all young people, regardless of when their declaration expires. It also enables the Youth Court to continue to have access to non - YSO-related conditions and orders when the YSO declaration has come to an end.

The next amendment is around youth advocates. This is a technical amendment that clarifies that young people in a military-style academy order are entitled to representation by a youth advocate during secure care extension applications. This was simply missing a cross-reference in the draft bill as a result of a drafting error. The amendment ensures that young people in a military-style academy order will have the same access to legal representation as other young people in a youth justice residence. The Amendment Paper also makes two grammatical corrections to clause 58 of the bill, inserting the word of “after” and “suitability” in two places. I welcome these amendments. They provide additional safeguards, increase transparency, and strengthen the oversight of the military-style academy programmes and young serious offender declarations

Firstly, the committee has recommended changes to the young serious offender declaration to provide additional safeguards. The bill is now clearer that any offending under the age of 14 cannot be considered as part of the application process, and other safeguards have also been strengthened to ensure every young person has a family group conference before they can be declared a young serious offender. This means a restorative justice process must take place first. It also means the young person and their family will be at the heart of a quality plan that responds to their needs and can address the underlying causes that drive the offending. The committee also recommended amendments that focus on improving the practical implementation of electronic monitoring, and the use of physical safeguards.

This bill opens up new rehabilitative opportunities for young people to get outside of the youth justice residences to take part in wilderness camps or bushcraft activities or noho marae. As Minister for Children, the safety of all young people is my top priority. The use-of-force powers relate to young people on a military-style academy order, and are intended to keep these young people safe, including when they’re off-site. Use of force is at times necessary to prevent young people from harming themselves or harming another person. There were calls for stronger safeguards around the use of force during select committee; I heard those concerns raised by submitters. The new safeguards will make de-escalation the first approach whenever possible, and the use of mechanical restraints by Oranga Tamariki staff or approved workers of qualifying providers will be expressly prohibited, and all use-of-force incidences will be recorded. Submitters also felt that young people should be examined by a healthcare professional after any use-of-force incident, and I support that amendment, which will ensure an independent healthcare professional assesses the physical and emotional wellbeing of a young person.

With the new safeguards introduced by the committee, the bill is not just stronger; it is safer, improving accountability and better protecting the rights of young people. The bill also provides for further safeguards to be outlined in regulations. With all these in place, I’m confident that the use of force will remain an exceptional and carefully executed authority, which serves its primary purpose to keep young people in our custody safe.

Greater oversight of the military-style academy programmes: the bill will now have an amendment to allow for qualifying providers to deliver components of the military-style academy programme. Submitters called for appropriate oversight on those providers, and of the military-style academy programmes more broadly. I’m pleased to see amendments from the select committee that strengthen some of these oversight mechanisms. First, the bill is now more transparent in defining a qualifying provider, and these providers will be approved as community services providers in accordance with robust additional requirements. The safety and suitability of their approved workers, who will have the authority to use force, will be assessed and approved by Oranga Tamariki.

Finally, the committee recommended—and I fully support—amendments to strengthen the independent monitoring of the military-style academy programmes. The Chief Ombudsman will now have access to all information relating to any use of force by an approved worker or a qualifying provider. This is a welcome expansion of the jurisdiction off the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman will also be able to investigate use-of-force incidences and play an active oversight role in the safety of the military-style academy programmes. Qualifying providers will also be subject to the Official Information Act in relation to their delivery of any part of the military-style academy programmes, to ensure greater transparency.

Finally, I’d like to highlight an amendment that ensures that if a young person on the young serious offender declaration breaches an order, or reoffends, the Youth Court can adequately respond to non-compliance or reoffending, even if the declaration is set to expire in the coming months. This means that the Youth Court is able to follow a young serious offender specific order with a standard Youth Court order, to follow on immediately when the declaration expires.

This Government remains committed to introducing solutions to the longstanding issue of reducing serious and persistent youth offending. We have already made excellent progress in this space. This bill complements the package of initiatives that we’ve already rolled out for most of the serious group of offenders. It does so by balancing public safety and accountability with the aim of reducing reoffending through rehabilitative responses. Our communities have called out for stronger, faster, and more targeted responses. Our Government heard the call, and I’m delivering in this space. This bill can stop the cycle of offending and help young people committing serious crimes to turn their lives around. I commend this bill to the House.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): This debate is interrupted and set down for resumption next sitting day. The House stands adjourned until 2 p.m. tomorrow. Pō mārie.

Debate interrupted.

The House adjourned at 10 p.m.