WELLINGTON - Associate Maori Affairs Minister Tariana Turia yesterday spoke out against her Government's plans to give police the power to fingerprint children, saying it was preparing them for incarceration later in life.
Police Minister George Hawkins said last month that the Government would clarify the law to allow police to fingerprint children as young as 10.
Police already have a database of children's fingerprints, but they have been obtained through parents volunteering consent.
Ms Turia said fingerprinting had not lowered crime, and eroded the rights of children and their families.
"No parent would agree to allow their children to be fingerprinted if they knew the police were using it as an opportunity to pre-criminalise their children," she said.
"Like longer sentencing, fingerprinting has not resulted in lowering the crime rate. This is clearly an erosion of rights of both children and their families."
Ms Turia said police should be more concerned with looking at the socio-economic conditions that created young criminals.
"Every sector should be involved in looking at the conditions of those people instead of preparing them for incarceration later on.
"We should be doing everything we can to build a safer and better society by addressing the social and economic situations that families are in."
She also questioned the ethnic make-up of the existing database.
Ms Turia's comments are unusual for a minister, who normally has to bow to cabinet collective responsibility and not speak out against Government and, in particular, cabinet decisions.
- NZPA
