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Friday, April 7, 2023

Point of Order: Some crime data to inform Marama Davidson, some to please law-and-order ministers



No, the chart above does not come from the Beehive. We found it today on Kiwiblog, under an item headed The Facts on violent crime.

The chart from The Facts speaks for itself, in relation to Marama Davidson’s claim that it is white CIS men responsible for violence in the world, David Farrar writes.

The Beehive website does include ministerial statements on youth offending.

More notably, it shows Willie Jackson is back on duty as Minister of Broadcasting while Keri Allan – having apologised for trespassing into the Broadcasting domain at her fiance’s farewell function in the Radio New Zealand – has recovered her interest in Justice matters.

Allan has seized on a fresh batch of Youth Justice Indicators Summary to enthuse that –
  • The number of children who offended each year over the past decade has decreased from 4292 to 1791.
  • The number of young people who offended decreased from 11,557 to 5,765, across the same time period, despite the inclusion of 17-year-olds in the Youth Court since July 2019.
  • Offending rates for children and young people has decreased by 63% and 64% respectively since 2011/2012.
“These statistics are evidence the youth justice system is continuing to work as intended for most children and young people.” Kiri Allan said.

Willie Jackson, meanwhile, was splashing out on the state-owned broadcasting company whose bosses had been admonished by Kiri Allan last Friday.

RNZ will receive an annual increase of $25.7m, including – 
  • $12m for RNZ to maintain public media services
  • $12m for a new digital platform
  • $1.7m for AM Transmission
NZ On Air will receive a $10m increase for 2023/24 which will focus on reaching new audiences.

We wondered if this might be the small change left after the plug was pulled on the public media merger.

No, not according to figures published by the New Zealand Herald which show the cost of that exercise in folly was $19.6 million.

Almost $12m of that went on contractors and consultants, who were paid on average $6000 a week.

About $2.6m went on offices and overheads, and $3m went to reimburse RNZ, TVNZ and New Zealand On Air for their work.

The Ministry for Culture and Heritage had about $44m in total to spend on the transition.

Obviously, the Government has dipped into its coffers to find the dosh which Jackson has announced.

Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor has been spending, too, announcing a $23 million boost to the fund that has helped farmers and growers with post-cyclone clean-up.

The extra grant funding takes total primary sector cyclone recovery support to $78 million.

The spending and the expressions of satisfaction with law-and-order policies can be found on the Beehive website –

In the six months following the announcement of the Government’s Better Pathways package, most children are not reoffending and ram raids have dropped significantly.

 

New statistics released today show a continued decline in youth offending over the past decade, Justice Minister Kiri Allan says.
 
The Government is investing in Radio New Zealand (RNZ) and NZ On Air to ensure all New Zealanders have access to public media that delivers world class content.
 
The Government is providing a further $23 million to support more farmers, growers, whenua Māori owners, and rural communities as they recover from Cyclone Gabrielle.
 
Thank you very much to the Business Energy Council and Genesis for inviting me along bright and early this morning!

Kiri Allan was armed with the latest Youth Justice Indicators Summary report (here) with data up to June 30 2022 which show what’s doing on the youth-offending front.

The report also showed a small increase in police proceedings against children in 2021/22 compared to 2020/21.

“The increase was not driven by more children offending but because those that have offended did so more often. This reveals what we already know, there is a small number of high risk children with complex needs who we need to continue to work with to reduce their offending.”

Three ministers – Children, Police and Social Development and Employment – have put their names to the statement triggered by the release of Ram Raid data is available here.

They have highlighted:
  • 82 per cent of children referred to Kotahi te Whakaaro programme have not reoffended;
  • A 65 per cent fall in Ram Raids in the six months following the announcement of the Government’s Better Pathways package.
“Our circuit breaker initiative is working,” Minister for Children Kelvin Davis said.

Those figures are more recent than those to which Kiri Allan drew attention.

Anything new from the Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence, Marama Davidson, who has a gift for making assertions which call for awkward clarifications?

Not that we could find, but David Farrar on Kiwiblog has published the chart featured at the start of this report. We reckon Davidson should consult it before she next exposes her disdain for cis men of a certain colour.

In his announcement about ploughing extra millions into Radio New Zealand and New Zealand on Air, Willie Jackson invites congratulations from taxpayers by noting:

“Today’s announcement will mean a total saving of $364.7 million over four years compared to merging RNZ and TVNZ.”

Then he tells us the government has done what a good government should do. It has listened to New Zealanders

“… and now is not the right time to restructure our public media.

“However the changing media landscape, increased competition, changing audience demands, and declining revenue pressures facing our public media are not going away.

“To address these challenges, we are investing $117.8 million over four years to deliver modern, trusted and relevant public media to all New Zealanders. This includes ensuring there is access to Civil Defence lifeline emergency communications and support to NZ On Air to strengthen collaborative public broadcasting.”


He went on:

“Supporting RNZ to provide public media services and to meet the needs of all New Zealanders in the digital age is critical. That’s why we are committing $25.7 million (annually) to ensure RNZ is financially sustainable for the future.

“This investment will strengthen news and current affairs coverage through a free multi-media digital platform to reach new audiences, expand regional coverage to be truly national, establish a new initiative to prioritise Māori and Pacific content and support RNZ to deliver civil defence lifeline emergency communications.”


Jackson then talks of bolstering “collaborative public broadcasting” by “restoring” NZ On Air funding and providing a $10 million increase for 2023/2024 to support the creation of innovative content.

“The funding will support the creation of high-quality content that better represents and connects with audiences such as Māori, Pasifika, Asian, disabled people and our rangatahi and tamariki. It is vital that all New Zealanders are seeing and hearing themselves in our public media,” said Willie Jackson.

Breakdown of new public media funding: 
  • $364.7 million of funding originally intended for the new public media entity, Aotearoa New Zealand Public Media (ANZPM) over the next four years will be returned for other Government priorities.
  • There will be a $25.7 million annual increase to expand and strengthen RNZ’s public broadcaster role. It is made up of:
    • $12 million for RNZ to maintain its public media services in Aotearoa New Zealanders,
    • $12 million for RNZ to innovate a multi-media digital platform, expand regional coverage, strengthen Māori and Pacific content for new audiences and build a dedicated emergency lifeline service, and
    • $1.7 million, annually, for AM Transmission to support RNZ’s lifeline emergency communications.
  • An additional $10 million will be provided to NZ On Air for 2023/24. This funding will focus on reaching new audiences through cross-sector collaboration with RNZ, Whaakata Māori and Te Māngai Pāho, fostering new ideas and ensuring New Zealanders are seeing and hearing themselves in Aotearoa public media.
We can only wonder what Kiri Allan might achieve in the broadcasting patch, should she be given the portfolio officially.

Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton


2 comments:

Robert Arthur said...

Maori, directly and indirectly have all now been exposed to Moana Jackson's "imagine decolonisation" mantra. Many are precticing it, including gang members. Hence the statistics.

Anonymous said...

Robert Arthur: exactly, this is the Reversionist Revolution and the Veto Thugs are the foot soldiers.