Kerre Woodham: Finally some good news

Talkback isn't really the place for good news. Generally, it's a forum where we can vent our respective spleens, express our frustrations, have a good old moan, and yes, we do share stories and we exchange information, but mainly it's to bristle about things that we feel aren't going right and could be better.

Good news, we tend to think that, oh, good, yes, things are back on track. They've listened to what we have to say, and things are as they should be, and then you don't bother phoning in because you just think, well, that's as it should be.  

But the news that youth offending has come down dramatically is simply too good not to share. Especially given the amount of bristling that went on when it was at its peak.

There has been a 16% reduction in children and young people with serious and persistent offending behaviour. And if you take that number and think of it as children, as young people, whose lives are now not going to be blighted and off course and may stay off course forever, these are lives that have been saved, pretty much.

Minister for Children Karen Chhour said in her press release, "I am proud to announce that the government's target has not only been achieved but surpassed."

The target's been reached four years early in terms of bringing youth offending down. She should be proud. She really should be. As should the government agencies involved in short-circuiting the trajectory of these young people's lives.

Youth crime, you will recall, was an absolute blight back in 2022/2023. Prior to then, it had been steadily declining both here and the Western world over, over the past decade, and nobody really knows why, but youth offending had come down.

But then along came Covid, and post-Covid, with all the isolation that was caused, all the rules being up in the air, lack of consequences for anyone at the time, given the be kind, be nice attitude, schools being closed,parents going quietly mad in some parts of the country, child offending went nuts.

It was a campaign issue. People were absolutely fed up to the back teeth with youth ram raids, with parents taking their kids out in the middle of the night to steal and rob other people's homes. Remember all that terrible footage of the time from people's home security cameras where you'd see the cars pull up and these littlies of 9-10 years old, in their pyjamas, getting out and doing the robbing for their gutless, malevolent, evil caregivers? It was absolutely shocking. And the waste of young lives was just cruel.

But now, and to be fair, it is building on what the previous government started with the multi-agency approach. Youth crime has come down and it's come down dramatically.

The Minister for Children Karen Chhour was on the Mike Hosking Breakfast this morning explaining just why it's dropped.

Some of it is young people no longer believe that they can avoid this accountability. I'm hearing it all across our communities, that they know that there's going to be consequences if they're caught. Other parts of it are better coordination between courts, Oranga Tamariki and police. And then we've taken some of the learnings from the military style academy pilot and put better investment into transitional support for young offenders coming out of youth justice. And we're investing in a number of safety and quality improvements to facilities in youth justice residences. So there's a lot of work that's been going on in the background, all around rehabilitation and making sure we are helping these young people be the best versions of themselves. This is good for them, and it's good for our community.

Absolutely. I could not agree more. And when you think of the flak that poor woman took from Māori MPs in Labour and Te Pāti Māori, who accused her of not being Māori enough and being a traitor to her race and all. She has done more to help children , to help because unfortunately Māori children were overrepresented in the youth offending stats. She has done more to help them than they have done with their posturing and their infighting and their race baiting.

She has made more practical difference to the lives of kids who didn't have a show when they're born to parents who just use them as tools in their offending because they know, and knew then, that there wouldn't be any consequences. Now there are.

So bloody hats off to her. And good on her for staying focused on the kids, which was the reason she got in to Parliament, rather than being distracted and put off . She stuck in there because she believed in what she was doing and she believed as a child of state agencies herself, she wanted to make a difference for the kids, and she really has.

And again, there's many reasons for that. It's building on what was started under the previous government who thought, bloody hell, we can't go on like this - the multi-agency approach proved

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the carry Wood and Morning's podcast from
News Talks hed B.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Talkback. Isn't really the place for good news? We received
a text yesterday, didn't we, helen just by the bye?
We received a text yesterday from somebody who said, I'm
new to this format. Why don't you get experts on
who can answer your questions rather than just people have
their reckons. You really are new to this format, don't you.

(00:36):
This is what we do. We listen to the news,
We digest the news, we read the news, We absorb
the news from different outlets, and then we have an
opinion on it. We have a reckon. This is our thing.
This is what we do. You and me, and you
know and I know if you are familiar with the format,

(00:57):
that it's not really the place for good news. Generally,
it's a forum where we can vent our respective spleens,
self frustrations. They have a good old moan and yes,
we do share stories and we exchange information, but mainly
it's to bristle about things that we feel aren't going
right and could be better good news. We tend to

(01:20):
think that, oh God, yes, things are back on track.
They've listened to what we have to say and things
are as they should be, and then you don't bother
phoning in because you just think, well, that's as it
should be. But the news that youth offending has come down,
and come down dramatically is simply too good not to share,
especially given the amount of bristling that went on when

(01:43):
it was at its peak. There has been a sixteen
percent reduction in children and young people with serious and
persistent offending behavior. And if you take that number and
think of it as children, as young people whose lives
are now not going to be blighted and of course

(02:04):
and may stay off forever, these are lives that have
been saved pretty much. Minister for Children Karen Sure said
in her press release, I am proud to announce that
the government's target has not only been achieved, but surpassed.
The target's been reached four years early in terms of

(02:26):
bringing youth offending down. She should be proud, she really
should be, as should the government agencies involved in short
circuiting the trajectory of these young people's lives. Youth crime,
you will recall, was an absolute light back in twenty
twenty two, twenty twenty three. Prior to them had been

(02:46):
steadily declining both here and the Western world over over
the past decade, and nobody really knows why. But youth
offending had come down. But then along came COVID and
post COVID, with all the isolation that was caused, all
the rules being up in the air, lack of consequences

(03:08):
for anyone at the time, given the bee kind be
nice attitude, schools being closed, parents gone quietly mad. In
some parts of the country, child offending went nuts. It
was a campaign issue. People were absolutely fed up to
the back teeth with youth ramraids, with parents taking their

(03:30):
kids out in the middle of the night to steal
and rob other people's homes. Remember that all that terrible
footage of the time from people's home security cameras where
you'd see the cars pull up and these littlei'es like
nine ten years old and their jamers getting out and
doing the robbing for their gutless, malevolent, evil caregivers. It

(03:52):
was absolutely shocking and the waste of young lives was
just cruel. But now, and to be fair, it is
building on what the previous government started with the multi
agency approach. Youth crime has come down and it's come
down dramatically. The Minister for Children, Karen Shaw, was on
the mic Hosking Breakfast this morning explaining just why it's

(04:14):
dropped some.

Speaker 3 (04:14):
Of its young people no longer believe that they can
avoid this accountability. I'm hearing it all across our communities
that they know that there's going to be consequences as
the court. Other parts of it are better coordination between courts,
autonotamariki and police. And then we've taken some of the
learnings from the military style academy pilot and put better

(04:38):
investment into transitional support for young offenders coming out of
youth justice, and we're investing in a number of safety
and quality improvements to facilities and youth justice residences. So
there's a lot of work that's been going on in
the background all around rehabilitation and making sure we're helping
these young people be the best versions of themselves. This

(05:00):
is good for them and it's good for our community.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
Absolutely, I could not agree more. When you think of
the flack that that poor woman took from Marii MPs
and labor Antipatimari who accused her of not being Mary
enough and being attraited to her race and she has
done more to help children, and to help because unfortunately
Marty children were overrepresented in the youth offending stats. She

(05:25):
has done more to help them than they have done
with their posturing and their infighting and their race baiting.
She has made more practical difference to the lives of
kids who did never show when they're born, to parents
who just use them as tools in their offending because
they know and knew then that there wouldn't be any consequences.

(05:48):
Now there are, and so bloody hats off to her
and good on her for staying focused on the kids,
which was the reason she got in to parliament, rather
than being distracted and put off. And you couldn't blame
her for leaving parliament. She had less of a backbone,
she probably would have, but she's stuck in there because

(06:11):
she believed in what she was doing and she believed
as a child of state agencies herself, she wanted to
make a difference for the kids and she really has.
And again there's many reasons for that. It's building on
what was started under the previous government, who thought, bloody hell,
we can't go on like this. So the multi agency
approach proved to be very effective and that has continued.

(06:34):
But if you also look at truancy, you know the
data shows rising at attendance every term since David Seymore
made it his mission to get kids back into the classroom.
In term two of twenty twenty five, fifty eight point
four percent of students attended school regularly. In twenty twenty

(06:55):
two that was thirty nine percent. There's been a huge
increase in the number of kids going to school. Wasn't
the school lunches that got them there? That was the carrot.
I thought it would, I really did. I thought, yes,
go the school lunch is starving kids. Desperate kids will
go to school and they'll turn up and they'll learn
because they'll be fed and they'll see school is a

(07:17):
safe place. No, didn't happen. What happened was a carrot
and a stick approach, an expectation that you will turn
up for school and if you're behind your desk, you're
not behind the wheel of a stolen car, are you.
This is good news. It's not perfect. There's still room
for improvement. I'm not entirely sure about the boot camps.

(07:39):
We haven't seen any figures from those, but that multi
agency approach is working. The expectation that kids will be
in school is working. The fact that there are consequences
for offending is working. This has got to be good news.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
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