Kate Hawkesby: I think we've reached a point at which repeat offenders aren't interested in rehabilitation

I was pleased this week that Police Minister Chris Hipkins finally got around to meeting Dairy and Business Owners Association head Sunny Kaushall. That only took about six months of chasing by Sunny So they met, which was good, Sunny got to express his concerns, which was good, they posed for amicable photos afterwards which was good, but what we really want to see is action don’t we? Get that money where it needs to go, and fast. We know of the $6 million set aside, that just under $200,000 grand has been spent. Pitiful. Of the hundreds of dairies and retailers hit by ram raids, only seven have seen some of the money. Not good enough. One local business association leader made the very salient point that the Government should send the money to local business associations and they’d very quickly get it sent out to the businesses that need it. It's a good idea and I don’t know why the Government doesn’t talk to local business more and engage local communities, who’re at the coalface, and enable them to help. Newmarket Business Association Head Mark Knoff-Thomas says retailers he’s spoken to are fearful. He says it’s not a crime wave it’s a “crime tsunami”. He says retailers don’t know what to expect day by day. They’re living on tenterhooks. He says the crime trajectory, particularly ram raids, has been gathering momentum since 2020, and the frequency of them has become dire. He says endless lobbying of Police Ministers has achieved nothing, and that “the lack of action to counter retail crime is a stain on this Government.” He spoke with an international visitor who he says was “shocked about how bad crime in New Zealand is”. He says bank workers are fearful too, and that’s just in his area. Many other CBD’s and business associations I’m sure have operators feeling the same way. So encouragement to a degree came yesterday in the form of some stats on arrests Police have managed to rack up. “Thousands of charges” were laid in Waikato and Auckland in relation to youth offending. “From February to September in Waikato, 205 offenders were arrested 307 times.. for ram raids and smash and grabs..  some of them repeat offenders. In Auckland, 142 youth offenders have faced, or are facing, one thousand and 36 charges.. since May.” Investigations are ongoing Police say, and hopefully further arrests and charges will be made, but the repeat nature of these offences and offenders would indicate Police Association president Chris Cahill is right when he says that it’s a core group doing this offending. Disengaged youth. Their motivation, according to  the Assistant Police Commissioner, is money, peer pressure and social media notoriety. So we need to make sure all that gets taken away from them don’t we? No access to the money, no access to social media, no room for notoriety. Of course that probably hinders their rights, and a judge would probably argue these days it could reduce their ability to rehabilitate. But I think at this stage, despite all the merits of rehabbing offenders and giving people the benefit of the doubt, we are at a point now where the repeat nature and the brazenness of it all, says they’re not that interested in rehab.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.