In the Government’s scramble to sell their failed boot camps, we’ve had the Police Minister contradict the Prime Minister, officials correcting and warning Ministers, and a Children’s Minister missing in action, said children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime.

“It’s all a confusing mess as the Government trips over itself, and each other, to push through a tried and failed experiment.

“We heard Christopher Luxon confirm the Defence Force would have minimal involvement. Then we had Police Minister Mark Mitchell saying they’d actually be heavily involved. And now, most recently, Defence themselves have stated they won’t be staffing the camps.

“It’s becoming clearer by the day that no one wants their name attached to a project which will fail the people the Government insists it is helping.

“The Prime Minister has also said community groups have been involved since day one, which doesn’t match up with the many communities now speaking up against this baseless experiment.

“With only a few weeks until the pilot, it’s worrying to me that it looks like they’re still making things up as they go.

“And, nowhere to be seen in all of this is Children’s Minister Karen Chhour, who we’ve also heard is meant to be running this programme.

“Families and children across the country are relying on Karen to stand up for them. If she and Minister Mitchell can’t even organise who’s running their own boot camps experiment, what hope can New Zealanders have for them to deliver on their other promises?

“It’s disgraceful that after hearing experts, officials, and people working with children across the country resoundingly agree that boot camps are a bad idea – the Government have stubbornly dug their heels in further.

“One has to wonder if the reason they’re not taking this seriously, is because deep down, they too don’t even think it’ll work – or in the Prime Minister’s own words ‘don’t care’,” said Willow-Jean Prime.

Notes:

• PM in post-Cabinet said that NZDF’s involvement in the boot camps at a governance-level, rather than the actual delivery, was a ‘fair characterisation’.

o    Full quote: “I think that's a fair characterisation. They've been embedded in the design of the program and working with OT around that, as have police, as have community organisations, as has OT from their own experiences as well.”

• PM in post-Cabinet also said community orgs have been ‘embedded from day one’.

o    Full quote: “That's what we're trying to do is make sure that we've got the community organisations embedded in from day one and sticking with the young person after they leave the residential facility.”

• PM said, in response to Dr Claire Achmad’s concerns about the boot camps: "I don't care what you say about whether it does or doesn't work.”
• Minister Mitchell told the Herald the NZDF only being involved at a governance level was ‘not accurate’ and would instead have ‘heavy defence involvement.’

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