DAVID GARRETT (ACT): We have heard the name Judge Andrew Becroft from both sides of the Chamber today in the time I have been here. It just so happens that I was in Christchurch last Monday and I ran into Judge Becroft, who I had never met, at Christchurch Airport. I went up and spoke to him because I had read in that morning’s paper an account of an address he had given the previous evening.
The article said that Judge Becroft had talked about our having produced a lost generation of valueless children. I thought that that sounded remarkably prescient. So I went up, introduced myself, and asked him if he had been accurately reported and he said that he had. He smiled slightly when I said “We’re pretty much of a mind, then, Judge.” He did not fall about making silly comments like Miss Dalziel would in that circumstance. He went on to say that we had produced a generation—fortunately of only about 1,000 in his estimation, and he would know—of young people with no values, no morals, and no idea of what is right or wrong.
That is what 20 or 30 years of the kind of policies that Mr Prasad advocates have got us. During his contribution I asked him, by way of interjection, how many child killers there were in 1974. I am sure he heard me, because I have a loud voice; but he ignored me, because there were none. That terrible system that he was talking about, which pertained at that time, funnily enough did not produce Bailey Junior Kurariki aged 12.
I heard that Bailey’s case had been discussed, and as I came in, Chester Borrows was talking about him. When he was arrested at aged 12 and convicted of manslaughter he was sent to a youth justice facility and given intensive treatment, if you like, for want of a better word. He was given schooling, psychological assistance, and counselling. And when he came to be released at age 18, I recall the Parole Board being quoted as saying that he was now a fine young man with a bright future. Everybody knows that very shortly after his release he breached parole, and breached parole again, and again.
Dr Rajen Prasad: He was hounded.
DAVID GARRETT: No, he was not hounded into beating up his girlfriend, I say to Mr Prasad. Sadly—and I say “sadly” very seriously—there is very little doubt that that man, and he is now a man, will reoffend seriously enough to be returned to prison for a long time. I feel sad about that both for him and for his victim. But it is no surprise. I remember seeing his mother on TV—a dreadful-looking harridan from South Auckland, with several other children by different men. She had been facilitated in that lifestyle by the welfarism that Mr Prasad says is a great idea. That is just the point. That system that he thinks is so good has produced over the last 20 and 30 years a lost generation—Judge Becroft said it himself.
I was talking the other day to a policeman in South Auckland who talked about going to houses where 4-year-old children were referring to the police as “f__ing pigs” and “pig c___s”. Those children have no hope at all; they will become Bailey Junior Kurariki. How can they not? They have been dragged up with no values—as Judge Becroft said in his speech in Christchurch—with no morals, and no idea of what is right and wrong. Members on the Opposition side are very fond of talking about root causes, drivers of crime, and all that stuff—and it is not just members on that side.
This bill is the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. It is, and it is necessary because of what we have produced with 20 or 30 years of welfarism. Until we face up to that root cause, we will have this happening again and again. The 4-year-old children whom my policeman acquaintance is talking about will, in 10 year’s time, be Bailey Junior Kurariki. How can they possibly be any different after being dragged up in that environment? Mr Prasad and others over there like Miss Dalziel talk about the whänau, the family; the whole philosophy that the family is best.
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