Nats stand by electronic bracelet policy for children

National Party MPs have stood by a policy to put child repeat offenders as young as 10 in ankle bracelets and send teenagers to a military-style academy in an effort to stop repeat ramraiders, despite evidence that previous boot camp schemes did not work.

The plans, announced by party leader Christopher Luxon yesterday, sparked intense criticism from Acting Prime Minister Grant Robertson, Justice Minister Kiri Allan, and Green Party coleader Marama Davidson, who slammed them as ‘‘racist’’ and ‘‘dehumanising’’.

The plans are also at odds with comments Luxon and his education spokesperson, MP Erica Stanford, made when ACT said it would put offenders aged 11 in ankle bracelets. In September, Luxon told Newshub he ‘‘wouldn’t support that’’ while last month, Stanford said the idea ‘‘breaks my heart’’.

Stanford said yesterday that electronic monitoring was ‘‘one small part in a larger policy’’ and the Government already put young people in ankle bracelets, a probable reference to the electronic monitoring of serious youth offenders awaiting trial in residences who are as young as 12.

However, Robertson said the plans were ‘‘reheating Bill English’s leftovers’’. In 2017, Sir Bill English promised to create a new boot camp for youth offenders at the Waiouru army base to crack down on 150 of the country’s most serious young offenders, but Sir John Key first promised boot camps in his 2008 state of the nation speech before his election.

Robertson said National was creating a populist response to a serious issue, while ramraids were also trending down nationally. ‘‘This is a National Party of no ideas,’’ he said. ‘‘This is a policy that we know does not work.’’

Allan said a Labour policy to put ankle bracelets on 10-year-olds ‘‘absolutely does not exist’’. She said putting youth offenders in a boot camp would create more victims in the longer term.

‘‘There is no better way to get fitter, faster, stronger, better, more wellconnected criminals than by chucking them all together in an army camp to ultimately go on to become a fully fledged national network,’’ she said.

National’s deputy leader, Nicola Willis, said the evidence behind the new policy was ‘‘that when a young person is locked up in a facility, they cannot reoffend’’. ‘‘The whole purpose of these facilities, which are brand new, is we will combine the best of the military with the best of those community providers who understand mentoring, who understand what is needed to get a kid back on track,’’ she said.

Davidson said the policies were ‘‘classist and racist’’. ‘‘They [National] protect their own communities and stigmatise brown, poor, low-income communities.’’

National’s plan involves targeting serious repeat offenders with a new young serious offender (YSO) category aimed at ringleaders.

This will apply to offenders aged 10 to 17 who have committed a serious offence such as a ramraid, other aggravated burglary, or serious assault at least twice.

What is Christopher Luxon up to? He seems intent on driving lefties nuts at the moment. First, the leader of the National Party suggested that, shock horror, parents should be responsible for getting their children to school and that was followed up by a new crime policy that includes military boot camps for troubled teens. Despite howls of outrage from Labour about creating ‘‘fitter faster criminals who do more crime’’ (Grant Robertson) and how this is reheated old nasty National coming back, this has clearly been a calculated decision.

Greens co-leader Marama Davidson said the policy was ‘‘harmful’’ and ‘‘deeply racist’’. ‘‘It is demonising and further stigmatising entire communities.’’

John Key ran on a policy similar to this in 2009 and it gels well with National’s law and order shtick – especially in the current era of ramraids and Australianstyle gangland activity, imported from across the ditch. A version of boot camps was also reintroduced by National in the lead-up to the 2017 election. Clearly, there was a view that it worked for the party.

In policy terms, it is a bit like reheating an old Big Mac you popped in the fridge after over-ordering a couple of days earlier. You know you probably shouldn’t but the packaging is appealing and you know what you are going to get. It is still good but you do get a slightly sloppy old burger with a supersized portion of guilt and regret. It is what it says on the box – which let’s face is pretty good and has wide appeal – but a nutritious meal it is not.

And so it is with this policy: looks good to a lot of people but a very charitable reading of results in the past would say they have been mixed to poor.

The policy also marks a harder edge to National and shows an upping of the ante in law and order. In October, National’s Erica Stanford said the following in response to an ACT proposal to stick ankle bracelets on young offenders: ‘‘We are going to whack an ankle bracelet on them? I mean, it just breaks my heart that we are even talking about this.’’ Now National is potentially going to do the same.

There is also the matter of using the Defence Force to do it – with a 15% staff attrition rate and lots of serving soldiers still grumpy about being quarantine babysitters for two years – will they really want to be involved in straightening out wayward teens?

Labour is right that really tackling youth crime is complicated. There now does seem to be more reheating of Key’s greatest hits. But Luxon is not Key and some more original fare will have to be dished up at some point.