'I don't care': Fired-up Luxon defends boot camps for youth offenders

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has fired back at critics of the Government's plans to introduce military-style boot camps for teens and kids deemed serious offenders.

Chief Children's Commissioner Dr Claire Achmad said this morning she was concerned about "anything that is military-style" being potentially used when working with children.

A pilot for the military-style academy will begin in Palmerston North at the end of July, with 10 young people already in the youth justice system. The 10 participants would face a three-month residence stage, followed by a nine-month community phase.

Luxon was asked about Achmad's remarks at his post-Cabinet media conference today.

He said: "I don't care what you say about whether it does or doesn't work. We can have that intellectual conversation all day long, but we are, dammit, going to try something different because we cannot carry on getting the results that we've been getting (sic)."

He said earlier: "I am going to do things differently to get a different result. Because just look at the last six years – do you think that worked out great for us?"

Luxon continued: "One of the things we understand is that we have to make the transition.

"We can get great results with kids in residential programmes, but when we put them back into the community, that's when they return back to the life that they were in."

He said while "many of you didn't want to hear it or listen to it", the prime minister reiterated that there would be community organisations along with the police and military components, and Work and Income's Limited Service Volunteer course.

"With the community organisations, in there from day one, we can work with those young people on their trauma, on their addictions, on their issues," he said.

"We're taking them out of the community so they don't cause harm, and we're making powerful, targeted interventions in those young people's lives and giving them the very best shot to turn their lives around."

Responding to Luxon, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the comments showed the prime minister didn't care about whether the policy was backed by evidence.

"He doesn't care what the evidence shows. He doesn't care whether it's going to work or not. He's just going to do it anyway," Hipkins said.

"I think what New Zealanders want is that we take the time to figure out what's actually going to solve the problem and that we invest their money in doing just that.

"The reality is that the rhetoric around, getting tough on crime that the Government has been spouting - since it took office and that it was spouting before the election - hasn't yet been matched by the reality."

The opposition has previously claimed the boot camps will be "cruel" and ineffective.

Luxon's comments come after a shocking armed robbery in Auckland's Papatoetoe last night, where a jewellery store owner was hit with a hammer and left seriously injured.

The PM addressed the incident when asked earlier today, adding he had previously met the owners of the store caught up in the robbery.

He said: "It's disgusting behaviour. I'm sick of it. The public's sick of it.

"I happened to visit that store. I know Gurdeep and his family who own that store. It wasn't that long ago, that I was shaking his hand in his store. Then to see him being hit by a hammer in the way that he has with a fractured skull, and now in hospital," he said.

"We have a major problem, as we've been talking about, about violent crime, about retail crime, and that has to stop."

Chief Children's Commissioner Dr Claire Achmad told Breakfast earlier today she has concerns with a "military-style" approach when it comes to dealing with young offenders.

The commissioner acknowledged the work to assess the needs of young offenders and providing mentoring and transition support in the programme, but reiterated she had been concerned about "anything that is military-style" when it comes to children.

"That is not a children's rights approach. So I am simply questioning whether we need that military-style component of this programme," she said.

"We actually know positive alternatives that do all that wrap around support that the minister is talking about, they already exist.

"Initiatives like Kotahi te Whakaaro in South Auckland, Mahuru in Te Tai Tokerau, these are initiatives that I've seen first-hand and that the evidence shows is working to ensure that young people don't go on to re-offend in our communities."

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