At first reading, a front-page
story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram raids that enables 12 and 13 year-old offenders to be charged in courts. One submitter declared that young offenders in state care would feel “under attack” by the bill. The measures were not going to be “good for our rangatahi and tamariki,” said another. A third young Maori who admitted to coming from a violent, drug-ridden home, implored MPs to address the causes of youth offending. “I really beg you to consider what you are doing, you are punishing us for your generation’s mistakes”.
