Children’s Minister Karen Chhour on boot camps and the ’national shame’ of child violence

It’s well known that New Zealand has a huge problem with keeping our children safe, fed, and housed.

Reports over the years show how low New Zealand ranks for child wellbeing outcomes compared to other developed countries.

Government stats show 23.5% of children born in 1998 had been the subject of a report of concern to Oranga Tamariki by the age of 17. That’s more than one in five kids.

One Police study into 63 young people involved in ram-raids in 2022, showed 95% of them were linked to at least one family harm event, before first coming to police attention as a suspect or offender.

And that’s before we even get into our high rate of homicide involving children.

Under this Government, the duty of looking after our tamariki falls on Minister for Children and for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence – Karen Chhour.

One of her big priorities so far this term has been reforming Oranaga Tamariki, and overseeing the reintroduction of bootcamps as one way of reforming young offenders.

She joins us today on The Front Page to discuss her portfolios and how the Government is planning to help our children.

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You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.

Host: Chelsea Daniels
Sound Engineer/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Ethan Sills

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