Karen Chhour wouldn’t say what safeguards may be included against these powers as they are up for “future consideration”, but there will be a “strict process” for groups to be able to run these academies.
Chhour on Tuesday afternoon told the Herald “any leak is unacceptable” but wouldn’t comment on whether she had launched an investigation into how the document became public.
The Government is proposing legislation to establish a Young Serious Offender (YSO) declaration and the ability to send some of these offenders to a military-style academy. This involves a period in a youth justice residence followed by a community-based programme.
Ministers agreed military-style academy providers, like Oranga Tamariki as well as third-party providers, will have powers to use force in the form of physical restraint or holds to prevent young people from absconding or harming themselves or others. These powers would exist outside of youth justice residences, like when a child is in transit to a residence or at other activities.
Chhour fronted on Tuesday afternoon to speak about the use-of-force provisions and said enabling those powers was critical to ensuring the children’s safety.
“We need to make sure that our young people are safe and we are making sure the communities are safe while they’re within this programme,” Chhour told the Herald.
“It has to be across the board. So no matter who is providing the service, they have the same level of care and duty.”
Asked who the third-party providers will be, Chhour said that hadn’t been confirmed yet.
“I can’t talk to future decisions in that space,” she said.
But she said there would be a “strict process” for groups wanting to run these academies.
“There’ll have to be a certain provider with certain statutory obligations and some of them are already meeting those statutory obligations. Training will be provided to make sure that everybody has the same level of training.”
Children Minister Karen Chhour has defended the policy. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Later, under questioning in the House, Chhour mentioned potentially extending current arrangements with iwi, community groups and other similar groups so they can be involved in military-style academies.
The Greens’ Tamatha Paul, who has been critical of providing the powers to third-party providers, asked Chhour whether this might include private, for-profit organisations. Chhour said iwi and hapu would be given the ability to be able to run the programmes.
The leaked paper contains a section on the risks of allowing the use of force and detention.
It said the provision of these powers “may be viewed as increasing the potential risk of abuse in custody, particularly in light of historic[al] abuse experienced by children and young people in similar programmes reported in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care report”.
“These powers will also be held by individuals and organisations, and not attached to places of detention. In New Zealand, only law enforcement personnel currently hold such powers,” it said.
Chhour told the Herald there are “lots of risks in life”.
“We take risks every day in our lives. But what we need to do is mitigate those risks and actually discuss those risks. If we don’t discuss them, we can’t address them and we can’t make sure that we’re actually doing the right thing.”
In the paper, it’s said not providing these powers would mean staff outside of the residential setting “would be exposed to legal risk if they tried to prevent a young person from absconding or from harming themselves or harming another person”.
“Given this risk, I consider that clear authority is needed,” the paper said.
The paper shows the Government intends to introduce the legislation next month, but “due to the time available, comprehensive safeguards are not outlined in the primary legislation”.
Instead, safeguards “to ensure these powers are used safely and reasonably” will have to be introduced through a regulatory framework. The paper said these regulations will be required before the bill can be brought into operation.
Chhour on Tuesday afternoon wouldn’t say what safeguards will be put in place or why the paper said these won’t be in primary legislation.
“This is up for future consideration and I’m not going to speak to anything that hasn’t been agreed to yet. But when there is something to talk about, I’ll definitely talk to you about it.”
Paul, the Greens’ justice spokeswoman, previously told the Herald it was “scary” that third-party providers may be granted the use-of-force powers.
She said it wasn’t clear who these third-party providers were, and she hoped the minister would be “tossing and turning over the decision she’s about to make”.
“The scary thing about the third-party provider elements is that it feels like it is repeating history,” Paul said. “It’s one of those things in this paper that is eerily reminiscent of bootcamps of the past.”
The Greens' Tamatha Paul. Photo / RNZ, Samuel Rillstone
Labour’s Willow-Jean Prime said it wasn’t appropriate for third-party providers outside of the residences to have the power to use force.
“We don’t know who they are, we don’t know what any of the processes are, there is no detail around what safeguards would be in the legislation.”
Both Paul and Prime expressed concern that the military-style academies could turn up like previous bootcamp programmes.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry report on abuse in state and faith-based care released earlier this year found young people at the Great Barrier Island-based Whakapakari bootcamp in the 1990s had to endure “what has been described as cruel and inhumane treatment”.
But both the Prime Minister and the Minister for Children have said effort is being made to introduce safeguards to the military-style academies and appropriate oversight.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Tuesday morning initially said he hadn’t had conversations about the use-of-force powers, despite Cabinet having already agreed to it. He later acknowledged to the Herald that Cabinet had addressed the matter, but said it had been one reference in a “broad” document.
Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.
