Hon Paul Goldsmith
Minister of Justice
Hon Karen Chhour
Minister for Children

The Government has agreed to discharge Labour’s redundant ram raid bill and instead focus on a more targeted response, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Minister for Children Karen Chhour say.

“Ram raids dropped 60 per cent last year and we’re confident we’ll continue to see this decrease over time,” Mr Goldsmith says.

“Our Government is more focused on creating faster, stronger, and more targeted responses to young people who repeatedly commit the most serious offences.”

“The creation of a Young Serious Offender declaration will make available for these young people tools to address issues and help them, along with unlocking stronger powers for both the Youth Court and New Zealand Police,” Mrs Chhour says.

“This Government is focused on restoring law and order, and that includes reducing youth crime, meaningfully. We are delivering new solutions involving intervention and rehabilitation – solutions to help these young people avoid cornering themselves into criminal life.

“That includes the Military-Style Academy order we have established, which will focus on providing structure, addressing criminal behaviour, rehabilitation, and setting serious young offenders up for a life away from crime with education and preparation for work.

“However, we are still progressing the elements of the Ram Raid Bill we think will make meaningful differences to respond to offending.

“The Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Amendment Bill will require the court to consider whether offending was livestreamed or posted online in a way that glorifies the offending when sentencing a young serious offender.”

“Similarly, our sentencing reforms picked up the aggravating factors relating to adults encouraging or enabling young offenders to offend and the livestreaming or posting of offending online in a way which glorifies the offending,” Mr Goldsmith says.

“This is all part of our work to ensure there are 20,000 fewer victims of serious violent crime by 2029, alongside a 15 per cent reduction in serious repeat youth offending.”

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