The Opportunity Party has scrubbed the age of 25 from a policy proposing a major expansion of New Zealand’s youth justice system.
An archived version of the party’s “Smart on Crime” policy, captured on March 5, explicitly promised to “raise the age of the youth court jurisdiction to 25, in line with developmental science”.
The policy now promises only to “raise the age of the youth court jurisdiction, in line with developmental science”. The words “to 25” are gone, but the commitment to raise the age remains.
Asked in an interview this week where that limit should be set, party leader Qiulae Wong was unable to give a figure.
The change follows scrutiny from National campaign chairman Simeon Brown, who highlighted the policy while rejecting suggestions that Opportunity was a centrist party.
“They want to lift the age of criminal responsibility to the age of 25. They are very weak when it comes to law and order. That is a radical policy, and that is not something the National Party supports,” Brown said.
His description is not technically the same as the wording Opportunity previously published. The party proposed raising the upper age of Youth Court jurisdiction, rather than making people younger than 25 exempt from criminal responsibility.
That distinction means offenders aged between 18 and 24 could still be arrested, prosecuted and held accountable. The proposal would allow them to be dealt with through the youth justice system rather than automatically entering the adult courts.
It remains a substantial change from the current system.
Youth Court jurisdiction was extended in 2019 to include most 17-year-olds up until their 18th birthday. Murder and manslaughter are excluded, while some other serious cases can be transferred into the adult jurisdiction.
Opportunity’s deleted wording did not explain whether its proposed extension to 25 would apply to every offence, whether serious and violent crimes would be excluded, or whether the change would be introduced progressively. Its current policy provides no further detail.
The party says its approach is supported by “developmental science” and forms part of a justice system focused on reducing reoffending rather than simply punishing offenders.
The Ministry of Justice operates a Young Adult List for defendants aged between 18 and 25 in several District Courts. It adapts court processes and connects defendants with support intended to encourage rehabilitation and reduce reoffending.
Those defendants remain in the adult jurisdiction. Opportunity’s archived policy went considerably further by proposing that Youth Court jurisdiction itself be extended to 25.
Archived copies show the explicit age was on the party’s website in March. By July 28, it had disappeared.
The policy has not been withdrawn, and the party has not publicly replaced 25 with another proposed age.
Opportunity did not respond to two requests for an interview about whether 25 was still its policy, why the age had been removed from its website, or when the wording was changed.
For now, Opportunity is asking voters to support an increase in the Youth Court age without telling them how far that increase would go.
Broadcaster Chris Lynch is an award winning journalist who also produces Christchurch news and video content for domestic and international companies. This article was originally published by Chris Lynch Media and is published here with kind permission.
Asked in an interview this week where that limit should be set, party leader Qiulae Wong was unable to give a figure.
The change follows scrutiny from National campaign chairman Simeon Brown, who highlighted the policy while rejecting suggestions that Opportunity was a centrist party.
“They want to lift the age of criminal responsibility to the age of 25. They are very weak when it comes to law and order. That is a radical policy, and that is not something the National Party supports,” Brown said.
His description is not technically the same as the wording Opportunity previously published. The party proposed raising the upper age of Youth Court jurisdiction, rather than making people younger than 25 exempt from criminal responsibility.
That distinction means offenders aged between 18 and 24 could still be arrested, prosecuted and held accountable. The proposal would allow them to be dealt with through the youth justice system rather than automatically entering the adult courts.
It remains a substantial change from the current system.
Youth Court jurisdiction was extended in 2019 to include most 17-year-olds up until their 18th birthday. Murder and manslaughter are excluded, while some other serious cases can be transferred into the adult jurisdiction.
Opportunity’s deleted wording did not explain whether its proposed extension to 25 would apply to every offence, whether serious and violent crimes would be excluded, or whether the change would be introduced progressively. Its current policy provides no further detail.
The party says its approach is supported by “developmental science” and forms part of a justice system focused on reducing reoffending rather than simply punishing offenders.
The Ministry of Justice operates a Young Adult List for defendants aged between 18 and 25 in several District Courts. It adapts court processes and connects defendants with support intended to encourage rehabilitation and reduce reoffending.
Those defendants remain in the adult jurisdiction. Opportunity’s archived policy went considerably further by proposing that Youth Court jurisdiction itself be extended to 25.
Archived copies show the explicit age was on the party’s website in March. By July 28, it had disappeared.
The policy has not been withdrawn, and the party has not publicly replaced 25 with another proposed age.
Opportunity did not respond to two requests for an interview about whether 25 was still its policy, why the age had been removed from its website, or when the wording was changed.
For now, Opportunity is asking voters to support an increase in the Youth Court age without telling them how far that increase would go.
Broadcaster Chris Lynch is an award winning journalist who also produces Christchurch news and video content for domestic and international companies. This article was originally published by Chris Lynch Media and is published here with kind permission.
10 comments:
Top are communists pure and simple & would be a bigger destabiliser than our current idiot savant leftist extremists the greens.
Miss Q is barely 25 herself.
Ahh TOP. Done the old Winston Smith trick and deleted the number 25 from their pledge to raising the youth criminal justice age. Just vanished.
Obviously this stupid idea, popular in the radical progressive woke cult, has bitten TOP in the arse, but it hasn't gone away. They'd do it in a heartbeat.
Here's a thought. If 25 and under makes you too stupid to follow the law, than logically you are too stupid to understand what you are voting for and that threshold should be raised accordingly. Bring back youth pay rates to 25 too.
The current Seattle mayor championed the ellimination of youth jails and defunding the police. Now, confronted by reality with a 15 year old mass murderer in jail for a shooting spree, now what Ms Wilson? Are you going to let him out?
It's not often a single policy defines a political party for what you can expect but this sucker has.
TOP are stupid. And for the safety of the public, dangerous. .
Surely they also feel the voting age should be raised to a similar number.
Ah TOP. Arrogant, condescending non -achieving know it alls!
The two main parties being Nats & Labour have over the past decade turned NZ into one of the ten worst performing economies in the world in terms of real GDP economic growth. Hipkins locked Auckland and closed us down. Nats protected big banks & big food with back room deals like retrospective laws; cutting capital rules; pretending contestable markets theory would lead to more supermarkets knowing it wouldn't.
Whilst PM Luxon attacks small business in Rotorua telling them to be adults & not look to govt for help, next day he meets bosses & lobbies from banks & supermarkets, giving them law changes they want.
Go figure why this election is about minor parties proposing different ways of doing things. Labour & Nats betrayed NZ as they pretended to act in public interest. Nat & Labour MPs I know have no plans due to lack of knowledge & experience.
According to Google AI, "Adults aged 25 and over account for roughly 60% to 70% of all recorded serious offense proceedings [while] under-15s generally account for less than 2% of overall serious crime proceedings."
So that means roughly 30-40% of serious crimes are committed by 16-24-year-olds.
Currently, 17 is the age at which offenders are dealt with as adults. TOP wants to raise that to 25.
The figures cited would suggest that would not be a good idea.
Ask any car insurance company about age demo graphics. Under 25 = no thanks.
And ACT wants to do away with the Maori electorate. Neither of these are policies the mainstream would ever entertain, so why waste column inches on them? People need to take responsibility for themselves.
8.3 percent of the prison population is under 25. Takes a fair bit of wrong doing to achieve a prison sentence (albeit some may be on remand).
8 percent of voters picked ACT in the last election. Coincidence? I think not.
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