Te Maioha o Parekarangi Youth Justice Residence near Rotorua. Photo / Felix Desmarais
Te Maioha o Parekarangi Youth Justice Residence near Rotorua. Photo / Felix Desmarais
Nine youths climbed onto the roof of an Oranga Tamariki youth justice facility on the outskirts of Rotorua in the latest of a series of similar incidents around New Zealand in recent months.
Minister for Children Kelvin Davis has described the incident and those like it as “unacceptable”.
Oranga Tamariki - the Ministry for Children - said the incident happened at Te Maioha o Parekarangi Youth Justice Facility, south of Rotorua, just after 2pm on Sunday and was dealt with within an hour. None of the youths escaped the premises and no one was hurt.
The Rotorua Daily Post asked Oranga Tamariki and police a series of questions.
In an initial written response, Oranga Tamariki deputy chief executive of residences and community Mike Bush said nine young people accessed the roof of the facility.
He said staff were quick to de-escalate the situation and it was resolved within an hour.
Te Maioha o Parekarangi Youth Justice Facility in Rotorua in 2010. Photo / Alan Gibson
“The situation remained contained, and at no point did any of the young people exit the grounds of the facility,” Bush said.
The statement said youth justice residences could be “challenging operational environments” and the organisation took incidents such as this “extremely seriously”.
“The safety of rangatahi in our care, our staff and the wider public is paramount.”
Oranga Tamariki was asked questions including how the incident happened, if anyone was hurt, if there was any damage to the facility and what the estimated cost would be. It was also asked if there would be any investigation into what happened, and how old the young people involved were.
None of those questions were answered.
Mike Bush from Oranga Tamariki.
When the Rotorua Daily Post pressed for more information, Bush said in an updated statement the damage was fixed on the same day and the residence was safe to operate. He did not disclose what the damage was.
Bush also added police had attended but the situation was resolved by staff at Te Maioha o Parekarangi.
Young people rioting on rooftops in youth justice facilities has been in the news in recent months after incidences in South Auckland and Christchurch.
Five young people spent the night of July 1, 2023 on the roof and within its cavity at the Korowai Manaaki youth justice facility in South Auckland. Photo / Alex Burton
In July, Oranga Tamariki staff at Korowai Manaaki, a South Auckland youth justice facility, got five youths down from a roof after a 30-hour stand-off with the promise of KFC and McDonald’s.
The NZ Herald reported at the time the group of youths escaped a unit and made their way on to the roof in protest. The group reportedly made “a number of demands”.
The week earlier, a group of youths protested on the roof of Te Puna Wai ō Tuhinapo, a youth justice facility near Christchurch, making a number of demands, including that they be allowed to call their girlfriends. They were also given KFC afterwards.
Following the incident in Auckland, Davis called for solutions around youths having roof access.
“While we need to remember these were not adults, this behaviour is unacceptable, can’t be tolerated and there will be consequences for these young people,” he said at the time.
“In the meantime, Oranga Tamariki needs to immediately look at solutions for issues around roof access, and I expect this to be done with speed.”
Minister for Children Kelvin Davis. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The Rotorua Daily Post asked Davis if he was aware of the Rotorua incident and if Oranga Tamariki had responded to his request.
Davis said any incident like this was “unacceptable”.
“In this case, I was pleased to see the situation resolved quickly and calmly, with no injuries to either staff or the young people.”
Davis said Bush had been leading a review into all residences and would report any changes that needed to be made. A lot of “quick-fix work” was also under way, such as reducing access points to roofs, he said.
“My expectation is that these incidents should be prevented wherever possible, but if they do occur, I want them to be handled professionally and safely, as happened in this case.”
The last reported incident at Rotorua’s facility was in 2021, when at least 14 youths were involved in a major riot in which they trashed the facility and some of them escaped.
Oranga Tamariki confirmed to the Rotorua Daily Post at the time the riot took place shortly before midnight on November 6 and resulted in 14 youths trying to escape. Nine of them wielded weapons, including shanks (homemade prison knives), mops and shovels.
The damage was so extensive, some areas of the facility needed to be shut temporarily while it was fixed and some youths were transported to stay elsewhere.
Police confirmed the youths managed to escape from a secure area, climbed on to a roof and tried to break into a “control hub” so that they could get out of the facility.
Police from across the Bay of Plenty were called in to bring the riot under control. No one was hurt.
Kelly Makiha is a senior journalist who has reported for the Rotorua Daily Post for more than 25 years, covering mainly police, court, human interest and social issues.
