Police and ambulance outside the Pooja Jewellers in Papatoetoe after reports of an armed robbery. Photo: Supplied / NZME
In response to demands from the ethnic community for tougher penalties for young offenders, the government has unveiled what it calls a "significant financial boost in Budget 2025 ... to help serious and persistent young offenders turn their lives around".
"This government's efforts to keep the public safe and reform young offenders is already bearing fruit," Minister for Children Karen Chhour said. "The Budget [delivered by Finance Minister Nicola Willis on Thursday] ensures we can continue this important work."
For this, more than $103 million would be invested over four years in upgrading facilities and funding ways to address recidivism amongst young people, the minister said.
It included $33 million for the operation of military-style academies and transitional support for young serious offenders, she said.
A further $16 million would implement the new legislative regime for Young Serious Offenders, as proposed in the Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Amendment Bill, Chhour said.
The remainder would cover repairs, upgrades and improvements to Oranga Tamariki and youth justice residences, she said.
Freeing up police resources
A related demand from the community has been to increase police resources to improve law and order nationwide, especially with regards to retail crime such as ram raids and aggravated robberies.
"The budget invests $480 million to support police on the frontline to crack down on crime and keep communities safe," Willis said in her Budget speech on Thursday.
"This year's Budget package continues to support police's frontline to deliver the policing services our communities need," Police Minister Mark Mitchell added.
"There is also new funding of $60 million over four years for the Police Prosecutions Uplift Programme (PUP), and funding to update the out-dated police payroll, human resources and workforce management systems.
"PUP is a programme of targeted interventions, including improving prosecutions to support court efficiencies and more timely case resolutions. It has the added benefit of freeing up frontline police from administrative overhead," Mitchell said.
Another initiative the government claimed would free up police was "overhauling the way emergency services respond to 111 calls".
Budget 2025 invests $28 million over four years to fund the transition from a police-led response to a mental health response to 111 mental distress calls.
"New Zealand's current response to mental distress crisis calls is not fit-for-purpose. Transitioning from a police-led response to a mental health response is the right thing to do," Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey said.
"Police do a great job in our communities, but they are not mental health professionals," he said.
"Police will always attend when there is a threat to life or safety, but this initiative will free police up to do with core policing."
Speedy justice
Putting victims front and centre of the justice system and speeding up the court process was another demand that kept coming up in discussions in the ethnic community.
Budget 2025 has provided $246 million of additional funding to courts over the next four years.
"This funding will support the ongoing operation of specialist courts, tribunals, the District Court, senior courts, the Coroners Court and the legal aid system," Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said.
"Justice delayed is justice denied. Waiting months or years for a case to be resolved only adds to the frustration and trauma for victims and, indeed, all court participants," he said.
"While there has been progress, it's really important that we keep things moving. This funding will to do exactly that."
Language boost
Budget 2025 allocated $18.225 million to the Ministry of Ethnic Communities to improve the wellbeing of New Zealand's ethnic communities, improve social cohesion and enable well-informed decision-making by the government.
This represented a slight increase from last year's Budget to cover the $18.002 million that was spent.
While there's no change in the Ethnic Communities Grant, which remains at $4.232 million, the increase is mainly in funding for support, advisory and information services provided to assist ethnic communities.
In particular, the government has increased the funding for Language Assistance Services to $325,000 from the current level of $45,000.
The language programme is a cross-government initiative to address language barriers in accessing public services and information.
It is currently managed by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
"[But] the programme will move into the business-as-usual stage from 1 July 2025. At this time, the role of administering LAS will transition from MBIE to the Ministry for Ethnic Communities," MBIE said.
Budgeting for the rest of current and past policy initiatives of the Ministry of Ethnic Communities has roughly remained the same.
