Prime Minister Chris Hipkins today moved to blunt criticism on the government’s handling of law and order, saying it was top of his agenda but throwing youth ram raiders in jail was “not the answer”.

Hipkins was speaking at a Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce lunch event at the Air Force Museum in Christchurch this afternoon.

During a 30-minute speech, fresh from meeting his Trans-Tasman counterpart and “good mate, the Prime Minister of Australia, Elbow”, Hipkins touched on the thorny issue of youth offenders twice, acknowledging that it was a major talking point for New Zealand’s business sector.

“I don’t want anyone in the room to underestimate how seriously we’ve been taking this,” the Prime Minister told the large gathering.

 “This hasn’t been something that’s just popped up overnight - it’s been a problem that’s been slowly bubbling away in the background and it’s now burst its way into a much more visible manifestation of ram raids, smash and grabs, and things like that,” he said.

Around a year ago, while holding both police and education portfolios, the ram raids were at their peak.

He spoke about waking every morning and wondering what he would be confronting that day.

“Sometimes multiple incidents overnight, kids stealing cars and driving them into dairies – and the concern that created has been enormous,” Hipkins said.

Desperate to understand how the disturbing and costly phenomena had occurred, he enlisted various agencies, including police, Oranga Tamariki, Ministry of Education, justice, social development and asked: “Who are these kids who are doing this?”

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins jetted into Christchurch today to speak to the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce at the Air Force Museum. Photo / George Heard

A list was compiled of less than 100 youths who had done more than five ram raids and “were at the core of the ram raiding problem”.

Some of them were as young as 12, Hipkins said, and “throwing them in jail was not the answer”.

About 90 per cent had parents who had been involved in the Corrections system while also coming from “incredibly dysfunctional backgrounds”.

The government established “fast turnaround” initiatives for the problem youths, he said, which saw specialists “intensively” working with families to help turn their lives around.

Hipkins claimed there was around a 75 - 80 per cent success rate in keeping them from reoffending.

But they still couldn’t get to that last 20-25 per cent – and last week more support was given to the Family Court to impose more conditions on the families, while also announcing a new criminal offence targeting ram-raiding, which carries a maximum 10-year sentence.

“Writing off those kids is a complete waste of potential future Kiwis and we will all pay the price for that,” Hipkins said today.

“We know that if we start sending them into more punitive justice settings that these kids will become lifelong offenders and they will be in and out of jail and we will all pay for that.

“We want to turn their lives around so they can become fully productive members of the community.”

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was the event's main speaker. Photo / George Heard

During Hipkins’ speech, questions were curated by Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce chief executive Leeann Watson who said the biggest issue for the attendees was youth crime.

Hipkins spoke about his parents who had humble beginnings but “worked damned hard” and gave him and his brother opportunities that they never had.

“That to me is what being a Kiwi should be all about – the idea that each generation should be able to make life better for the next generation that follows,” Hipkins said.