Karen Chhour: Minister for Children on day one of military-style youth bootcamp pilot

It is day one of the Government’s military-style youth bootcamp pilot. 

The programme has faced harsh criticism from the opposition and experts, but Minister for Children Karen Chhour says the 10 young men taking part have hope as of today. 

Chhour tells Mike Hosking she understands the pushback but hopes the programme will out the right people in front of youth to steer them down the right pathway. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Day one of the government's new Academy's pilot. Of course,
next three months ten offenders going to stay to Parmson
North facility. The following nine will be spent transitioning back
into the community. The person in chargeable this is the
Children's Minister Karen Shaw, who is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Good morning, Oh morning, I hope your morning's going well.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
It is so far. Do you enter this with a
level of confidence.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Oh yes, I do, because what I inherited was absolutely
depressing these young people who were sitting in these youth
aftice facilities with absolutely no hope. Now I know that
ten of these young men actually have some hope as
of today.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Have you been surprised at the amount of pushback you've got?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Actually no, because I do understand the trauma response, especially
considering the Royal Commission inquiry into care and the boot
camps in that inquiry, so I can understand how it
can concern some people.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
You're very charitable. I watch you and question time. You've
taken a lot of heat and question time they're almost
desperate to prove you wrong. Do you feel that, Oh yeah,
I do.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
And it's actually quite disappointing because what I would want
to see is them to want to see these kids succeed.
That's what we all want. We all want a better
life for our young people and we all want to
safer community. So really can't understand why people are wishing
this will not succeed.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Have you been able to explain to their I mean
clearly you haven't to their satisfaction, but the idea that
we've been here before it didn't work, according to them,
But somehow this is going to be different.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, And we talk about all the wrap around support
and the nine months transition back into the community which
we've never done before. That are asking for community to
take this on board. That's exactly what we're doing. So
it's like talking to a brick wall sometimes when you
want something to fail so bad you're just not willing
to listen.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
How do we know that if it does work, what
will it look like? How will we be able to
go look at that it worked?

Speaker 2 (02:10):
And when we start seeing less harm in our communities,
that's my aim. I'm thinking about the victims of the
crimes of these young people too. We need less harm
in our communities and the more we can do to
turn these young people's lives around. So they're not creating
victims and harming people. That's no very successful.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
That one person that you've got along with these kids
when they come out after the three months, is that
the critical bit that they've got that one person to
stay in contact with the whole way.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
I think that's just part of the whole picture. But yes,
it is really important that this young person house that
has somebody to help them navigate the world when they
come back into the community.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
What's your assessment on these kids? Is it genetics? So
in other words, it doesn't matter what you do with them,
they cannot be helped or can all kids be helped?

Speaker 2 (03:04):
All kids can be helped, Mike. I could have been
one of those kids. I could have gone down the
wrong path, but I had that one person in my
life that told me I was worth something and helped
me to steer myself down the right pathway. So hopefully
we can put that right person in front of this
young person and show them that actually somebody does care

(03:26):
about them.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
That's hope. So Karen appreciate it. Ti, I'm Karen sure,
who's the children's minister? Eighteen away from eight? Mike, look
at the program in the Northern Australia ninety percent success. Right, Yeah,
it's often it's not just the idea, it's the execution
of the idea, of course, and there's been just a
tremendous amount of negativity around it that is not just
what they're right. As I asked on the program last week,
what if they're right?

Speaker 2 (03:46):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news Talks.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
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