David Seymour: ACT Party Leader on the on deceased and two missing bootcamp children

The Government's bootcamp trial is under the microscope with news that one of the kids has died in a car crash and two have run away after attending his tangi.

Labour are now calling on the bootcamps to be shut down entirely.

ACT Party leader David Seymour has been an advocate for the camps and joins Heather du Plessis-Allan to discuss what this means for them.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, good afternoon. Well, the government's boot camp trial is
under the microscope, with the news that one of the
kids has died in a car crash and two other
kids have run away after his Tonguey Labour's now calling
on the boot camps to be shut down entirely. Act
Party leader David Seymour has been an advocate for the
boot camp trial and is with us. Now, Hey, David,
are you seeing this as a failure of the boot camps.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
No, I'm not. I'll get into the opposition later if
you want to give me a chance, but let's just
deal with this very serious issue. You've had again kids
go with it. You've got eight of them who are
actually doing very well. You've had one who has tragically
died in a car crash. We can't say much more

(00:42):
about that, but there is nothing to suggest that I'm
aware of that actually he was up to anything wrong.
He was just called in a tragic accident, which sadly
happens to hundreds of New Zealanders every year, despite them
doing nothing wrong. We've had another kid who had reoffended
and he's the one who has definitely done something long

(01:03):
since entering the course and only one that has that
was given compassionate consideration despite being locked up again to
go out to the tonguey of his mate who had
died and absconded from the toungey. Finally, today, another kid
who for reasons that aren't clear, who was outside of

(01:26):
the facility. I remember they're on the kind of home
supervision part has broken his court order and has gone
missing over the last few hours. We don't know much
more about that. I think once you get a practical
view of what's actually happened, the oppositions, shall I say,
hysterics can be put in a bit of context. I
think it says more about them than this policy or

(01:50):
these youth offenders. And you've got a bear in mind,
you don't get put in juvie for smoking behind the
bike shed. I mean, these are some of the most
broken and sometimes dangerous kids that there are. I've been
to the facility at Parmers North. I've actually sat down
with these kids and I think it's a little bit
early to say that this program has failed it. I

(02:13):
actually think it's doing very well. Bear in mind there's
others who, for example, have started a barbering apprentice ship
and are turning their larves around.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
And so why do you want to have a crack
at the opposition over this?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, it's pretty simple here that when I came into
Parliament ten years ago, there were people in the Green
Party who maybe not my tea, but you could talk
to them. Maybe a bit quirky, but well meaning, very
thoughtful and often very intelligent. I look at Tabitha Hall today,
miss representing the situation for political gain, saying that the

(02:51):
kid died in a military style of academy, which is
absolutely untrue. And then you've got an opposition politician who
reads the headlines, asked what's going to give her the
biggest political sugar hit, and then goes out and spreads
misinformation about a vulnerable child who's died. Now, what does
that tell you about the Greens. They don't actually believe

(03:13):
in supporting vulnerable children. They believe in using them for
political purposes. And when she was found out, she said, oh,
I just chose to amplify the voice of another young person,
So she's actually blaming her screw up on another. So
she's actually managed to use and abuse two children in
the course of this. I just think it's a disgrace

(03:34):
but I'm not surprised because these are the same people who,
when the Royal Commission of Abuse and State Care inquiry
was released, chose to politicize it horrifically personally attack Karen Sure,
who's actually one of the people who could well be
in those reports given her background. It shows a politicization

(03:55):
of issues that deserve some maturity. And you know what,
I compare that to the Green Party I Houston. I
think they've got really big problems politically, policy wise, but
most importantly ethically.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
Yeah, David, thank you. I appreciate your time. That David Seamore,
the Act Party leader.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
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