Chris Hipkins talks to the media about the resignation of the Justice Minister.
OPINION
Kiri Allan has gone and she will take Labour with her.
Having already lost four ministers this year, counting Jacinda Ardern, Labour has now lost five, after Prime Minister Chris Hipkins allowed an unwell Allan to resume her portfolios.
The party is in chaos. Ginny Andersen - who inmy view is struggling as Police Minister - has also been given Justice. Annette King, a much more experienced minister, held both portfolios, but it is a highly undesirable arrangement. Policy and enforcement should never be combined.
Justice is a policy department, not an enforcement one. Police, meanwhile, do not make the law — they just enforce it.
I have been Minister of Police. A strong Minister of Police would have told an emotional Prime Minister last week there is no place at a crime scene for a politician.
Hipkins’ popularity was boosted by his being seen on TV in gumboots comforting cyclone victims. However, Andersen should have told him the downtown Auckland shooting was not another such opportunity.
Andersen should also have advised Hipkins against yet another policy U-turn. Suddenly being tough on crime will not win Labour votes.
In 68 days, advance voting begins. Labour needs teams of volunteers to turn out the vote, but not one Labour activist volunteered to knock on doors so the state can lock up 12-year-olds.
Juvenile crime is one of the hardest issues to tackle. It requires a carefully made policy.
As a young lawyer, I practised in the Youth Court. I found the amount of crime one young boy can do is prodigious.
To describe where these boys lived as a ‘home’ is to stretch the definition of home. They were violent places where the adults were often alcoholics, drug addicts, had mental health issues and were themselves criminals. But youth advocates have insisted young offenders be sent back into these violent places.
The country used to send juvenile repeat offenders to state boys’ homes. At university one summer, I took a job in a boys’ home. None of the windows were barred. We did not lock the boys up, though there was a secure room that was used for time out, but not for punishment.
There is no need for the multi-million-dollar secure youth facilities that Act, then National and now Labour have promised to build. Large houses in the community with grounds will do fine.
There were three escapes when I was there. The police picked them up in a matter of hours — where are children going to go?
The boys were clothed, got three good meals a day and were in a safe environment. We attempted to teach them to read. I never saw any mistreatment.
Let us be clear: the state is no better at being a parent than it is at running a railway. A boys’ home is a last resort. Rehabilitation occurs only in the community. Age and fatherhood are the two factors that rehabilitate.
Police Minister Ginny Andersen has now been given the Justice portfolio too. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Effective crime prevention starts young, very young — between birth and age 3.
Social workers know the families these young offenders come from. When an at-risk mother is giving birth, it is vital to ensure the father witnesses the birth. Holding a brand-new baby triggers something in the DNA of even hardened gang members.
It is a revelation to these new fathers to learn they can have a positive influence over their baby’s life.
It is news to these new dads that they need to ensure their baby is fed when hungry, changed when wet, and that they should talk and play with their baby.
Never, never frighten a baby. The baby frightened when young is the angry 16-year-old who smashes down the door.
For a fraction of the cost of these promised new high-security youth facilities, we could provide wrap-around services to every at-risk baby.
If we pay schools only for the pupils they teach, rather than the number they enrol, schools will be incentivised to get pupils back into the classroom.
Crime prevention programmes should keep delinquents apart. National’s boot camps will just produce fit young criminals who have been introduced to other fit young criminals. I know of young offenders who plotted their crimes with youths they met on PD.
A Youth Court judge observed he has never had someone from a kapa haka group appear in his court. Most offenders would rather play league than be in a gang.
But there will always be repeat juvenile offenders. To keep society safe, there is a need for boys’ — and increasingly, girls’ — homes. These homes must be a safe environment. We must never forget they are children.
It has taken Labour more than 1000 days since the last election to realise keeping society safe is the Government’s priority. It is a task that requires both a Minister of Justice and a Minister of Police.
Richard Prebble is a former leader of the Act Party and a former member of the Labour Party.
