Point of Order: Buzz from the Beehive - 4/10/23

The PM and Kiri Allen were taking a harder line on youth crime in July, but today Kelvin Davis extends a soft approach

The hard cops had their go back in July, when the PM and his Justice Minister (before her fall from grace) announced the Government will introduce a new offence specifically targeting ram raids and changes to allow 12- and 13-year-olds to be charged in the Youth Court.

That was the third in a package of law and order policies specifically targeting youth offending unveiled in the same week.

Today, the soft cop is back on the law-and-order beat.

John MacDonald: When did ram raid bragging become free speech?

I know David Parker’s got a job to do. As Attorney-General, he’s got a job to do and part of that job is to run a fine-tooth comb through new laws to see if they stack up and won’t be more trouble than they’re worth.

What I mean by that, is making sure they don't have so many holes in them that anyone who wants to could get all legal on it and either get away with whatever the law is designed to stop, or haul the government off to the likes of the Supreme Court.

John MacDonald: Don't send 12-year-olds to court - send their parents

Another day and another rushed law and order policy announcement from Labour.

Yesterday’s one was the third this week, and pretty much focused on ram raids and what to do with 12 and 13-year-old kids who get involved in them.

As the week’s gone on, I’ve thought Labour’s policy announcements have been pretty lame and yesterday’s was no exception.

Garrick Tremain: Urgent action

 Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on Labour's youth crime and youth justice system urgent action! 

Mike Hosking: Crime policy Part Two was a sham

Here's a small insight into how these things work.

The Government, now in full panic mode as they head towards election defeat, rounds up all the stuff they look weak on and then sets about making announcements about how what they have been doing for six years doesn’t count.

That's what led to getting part two of the law and order reset.

John MacDonald: Penalising parents for kids behaving badly not the answer

If I owned a dairy, I might think very differently. But I don’t and, maybe, that’s why I can’t say that I agree with what the Dairy and Business Owners Group is calling for.

They’ve had a gutsful of what they’re describing as “14-year-old ratbags” getting away with nicking stuff and ram raiding their shops. There’s all the violence involved too.

And so they’re saying that, if the kids are getting away with it because they’re not old enough to be charged, then attention needs to turn to the parents of these kids and they should be made legally responsible for what these ratbags are getting up to.

Kate Hawkesby: The question that is hard to answer without being embarrassed to be a Kiwi

I was at my physio yesterday, she’s South African. She moved here to an allegedly ‘safe’ country with her children, they live on Auckland’s North Shore, they’ve eaten at the Albany restaurants where the axe attack took place.

She said it could have been them, her, or her children. She asked me what’s happened to this country and why it’s so violent now.

It’s hard to answer that question without feeing embarrassed as a New Zealander that our little slice of paradise has come to this.

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.

Guy Hatchard: Our Post Ardern Way Ahead

Yesterday I had a very wide ranging and interesting discussion with Farmer James and Jono Frew. You can view it on Farmer James’ FB page. I realised how important it is to offer ideas about a way ahead in the vacuum created by Ardern’s abrupt departure. We are facing Chris Hipkins as PM, who is firmly identified with Ardern’s failed policies.

More importantly, we are living in a broken society. Our health system is overwhelmed. Excess all-cause mortality is at record highs. Our school system is in crisis. Social cohesion is at a low ebb. Crime is rising. The cost of living has skyrocketed. More of the same policies are not going to solve these crises. If nothing is changed, the coming year will bring a harvest of bankruptcies and mortgagee failures.

Stuart Smith: We Must Not Be Idle About Crime

Stuff asked the following question
Teens are running amok on crime sprees and military-style boot camps for young offenders are back on the political agenda.
But boot camps have been promised many times before - and failed. A 2012 report found more than 50% of those sent to camps reoffended. So what is the real answer for stopping teens turning to crime?

Below is Stuart Smith’s response.

Kate Hawkesby: They commit crimes because they know they can get away with it

 

So today Cabinet meets looking to “discuss what more can be done to combat crime,” according to the Prime Minister.

Sadly she’s a bit late with that statement. The irony being that her government has been inundated with people asking them to toughen up on crime for ages... they did nothing. Poto Williams, in her capacity as Police Minster dropped the ball so badly she was moved on and replaced with Chris Hipkins. There were hopes he would toughen up on crime, but sadly under his watch it’s only gotten worse.

Darroch Ball: The Problem with the Bollards

If bollards were the solution to ram raids and youth crime, then the National Party’s solution of fog cannons would have solved it eight years ago – because it’s the same thing.

The reason why they both won’t work is that they aren’t even touching the sides of the problem: the offenders.

It’s almost an admission of failure. They can’t deal with the offending so they just try and mitigate the effects. Folks, that’s literally the limit of these measures.

Kate Hawkesby: We have forgotten the word 'consequences' in this country

 

So predictably, sadly, the huge bushfire in North Canterbury is believed to have been started by two young people letting off fireworks. Why are we not surprised?

130 people were forced to leave their homes in an all-night evacuation. A massive amount of resource was poured into fighting the fire including four helicopters with monsoon buckets, two waterbombing planes, 7 fire crews, 70 firefighters, 12 trucks, 2 bulldozers and 2 diggers.

Darroch Ball: Youth Crime and Manipulation of the Stats

There have been comments from the Minister of Justice, and repeated in the media, about the recent youth crime wave being a so called ‘spike’. What they want is to create a message that it is ‘short term’, ‘fixable’, and ‘unexpected’. All of which are not true.

They say there has been a ‘spike’ in gang tensions, in youth crime, in ram raids, in violence, and in shootings. Don’t for one second think this is true. Moreover, don’t think this trend in the increase in all of these things hasn’t been totally predicted or forewarned. This is not a ‘spike’. It is the beginning of a new upward trend.

Darroch Ball: They Are Just Taking the Mickey Now

In response to the smoke and mirrors ‘Youth Crime Announcement’ from the government, the Act Party has said that these youths need to be on electronic monitoring.

Firstly there is nothing new about what Labour have announced – it just ‘expands’ the same old stuff they have been relying on for the past five years. More ‘community wellbeing boards’, more wrap-around support, more excuses, more hugs, more mugs of Milo. Literally nothing different.

Point of Order: Some Ministers head overseas while others are aiming for the stars

Giving their strategy its thrust with a $16m investment

The news from the Beehive featured announcements of ministerial travel plans and law-and order initiatives along with news that our government is aiming for the stars with a strategy given some thrust with almost $16 million of public funding.

New ministerial posts also deal with:-

Kate Hawkesby: Less support, more tough punishments for youth offenders

 

I'm wondering how long we're going to turn a blind eye to youth crime for.

ACT came out with a plan to try tackle it in its law-and-order policy the other day, but that's about it.

Ironically, as David Seymour was on the street talking about how to tackle youth crime, 5 storeys above him on the side of a building, youths were busy tagging. 

Karl du Fresne: Masterton deaths bring out the excuse-makers

Driving down the main street of Masterton last Sunday morning, I noticed a cluster of traffic cones on the footpath. A few metres further on, a photographer was taking a picture of the street.

I didn’t give it another thought at the time. It was only later that I learned two 15-year-old boys in a stolen car had hit a pole and been killed while fleeing from police. A 14-year-old survivor has since been charged in connection with the crash.