Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown met with Minister for Social Development and Employment, Hon Carmel Sepuloni, in Auckland yesterday.

The two discussed how Auckland Council and government can work together to address shared areas of concern focusing on youth with a high level of social need.

“It was a warm and constructive meeting to foster a positive working relationship for the benefit of Auckland’s high-risk youth and wider communities,” Mayor Brown said.

“I appreciated the opportunity to meet with Mayor Wayne Brown yesterday to discuss social issues concerning Aucklanders, including how we can work collectively to bring down youth crime,” Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni said.

The Mayor and Minister agreed that at risk youth require intensive support from multiple agencies, and this must include wider community involvement.

Mayor Brown raised concern for victims of a recent spike in retail crime, particularly Indian and Chinese business owners.

“We will conduct a stocktake on how to best direct our existing social needs resources, and better align with Government and social service organisations across Tāmaki Makaurau,” Mayor Brown said.

This stocktake will build on the one undertaken by Government earlier this year.

“Yesterday’s meeting was an important opportunity to talk constructively about how we can prevent the crime that we’re seeing shake communities. I reiterated our government’s commitment to match councils’ dollar-for-dollar to fund locally led crime prevention solutions in addition to the suite of measures we’ve put in place,” Carmel Sepuloni said.

“We know that our approach to breaking the cycle of youth crime is working, with around half of the most serious and repeat young offenders identified through our Better Pathways package now back in education or training. The reoffending among this cohort has also reduced.”

“Whilst this is encouraging, we know that we must continue to take a concerted and deliberate effort to continue this mahi. In meeting yesterday, both Mayor Brown and I walked away with a shared commitment and strong determination to work closely together to break the cycle of youth crime,” Carmel Sepuloni said.

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