Labour is accusing the Government of trying to cover up the extent of re-offending being committed by participants in its 12-month, military-style academy pilot.

The comments follow Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Children’s Minister Karen Chhour and pilot lead agency Oranga Tamariki refusing to detail how many of the nine young men in the pilot have re-offended as claims suggest as many as six have returned to youth justice facilities.

It also comes alongside the release of a review into the initial three-month in-residence phase of the pilot, which Oranga Tamariki believes was “largely positive” even though the review found the pilot’s design was “untested”, iwi members were not consulted early enough and staff were put through “unsustainable” workloads.

Interest in re-offending peaked towards the end of last year, when two participants absconded following the death of another participant in a car crash near Tirau in November.

Oranga Tamariki published regular updates on re-offending, including confirming in December three participants had faced charges, before changing its policy to only releasing information if “circumstances are exceptional or a matter of public safety”, citing privacy concerns.

Opposition parties continued to pressure the Government for further information. Labour’s Williow-Jean Prime in the House last week quizzed Chhour on speculation six of the nine young men in the pilot programme had returned to youth justice facilities due to re-offending.

“I’m not sure where [Prime] has got those numbers from and I can neither confirm nor deny those numbers,” Chhour responded.

Children's Minister Karen Chhour won't discuss how many of the pilot participants have re-offended. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Speaking to the Herald on Friday, Oranga Tamariki deputy chief executive and pilot lead Iain Chapman said he understood his obligation to inform the public but argued the intense scrutiny in recent months had taken its toll.

“The reality is that not only have these young men, who have never really been subject to such exposure, now have such a heavy political spotlight on them ... we’re also dealing with an immense amount of grief that does add an element to it, which I would hope that everyone would be able to accept,” he said.

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“I firmly believe that that does give us even more of a reason as to why, for now, we keep the finer details of what we’re dealing with, to keep that closer so that we have got every opportunity to allow these young men to succeed.”

Parliament’s Social Services and Community Select Committee is currently considering the Government’s bill allowing the pilot to become an established part of its approach to recidivist youth. During public submissions last week, MPs were warned by experts and abuse survivors of the risks of such programmes.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the Government had been told the boot camp approach would not work and believed its silence on re-offending indicated it had failed.

“Now they seem to be trying to cover up the fact that they’ve been an absolute failure.

“They’re not even willing to give basic information, like how many of those young people are now back in custody. I think that’s inexcusable.”

Prime today told reporters it was “incredibly frustrating” being unable to analyse the level of re-offending while the bill was progressing through the House.

“They should have to be able to tell the public that they have the evidence to support that their approach works because they are putting it into law,” she said.

“With no evidence to support that, I think that’s unacceptable.”

She pointed to programmes Labour used to rehabilitate recidivist youth, saying about 30% of all youths involved went on to re-offend.

However, Luxon today claimed there was an “almost 90% re-offending rate” for young people exiting youth justice facilities under the previous Labour Government.

“What we are going to do is make sure that we don’t give up on these kids.”

He was comfortable with not releasing the level of re-offending and also endorsed the pilot in light of the review of its first three months in Palmerston North’s youth justice facility.

Luxon also pointed to the changes the Government could make to the pilot once the legislation was passed.

“The new legislation that we’ve got will give us the flexibility to extend the time in residential care because actually for some of our kids, they needed more than just the three months, which we had under the pilot structure.”

Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.