Opinion: Government Action on City’s Youth Crime

Opinion: Penny Simmonds Invercargill MP

We’ve had our fair share of issues around youth crime in Invercargill this year.

So it’s heartening to see the Government stepping up and supporting a community like ours, which have asked for help.

A new declaration for young offenders has recently been introduced.

This declaration will provide more options for the Youth Court and Police to hold serious and persistent young offenders accountable and make powerful interventions to improve their lives.

It will ensure young people who cause trouble around our city face tougher consequences and are better supported to turn their lives around.

Police have told me that it’s a small number of young people who are committing a significant proportion of the youth crime in Invercargill.

This declaration will give police more tools to deal with issues as they come up.

Young Serious Offenders could be sent to a new Military-Style Academy, have more electronic and judicial monitoring, and Police will have the power to arrest a young person without warrant, for non-compliance with conditions of an order or a breach of their bail conditions.

These interventions will not only benefit young people’s lives in the long run, but it will also reduce the number of victims they are creating in our city.

The establishment of this Young Serious Offender declaration supports the Government’s target to reduce serious repeat youth offending by 15 per cent.

The coalition Government is also investing $2.9 billion in restoring law and order, including $497 million of reprioritisation, other savings and revenue.

Published by arrangement. Funded by Parliamentary Services.