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Dear John, Youth Parliament July 2022 During the recent July recess, Parliament hosted Youth Parliament 2022. Charlotte Cornwall my Youth Representative went down to Wellington to Parliament for the two day Youth Parliament event with her peers from all over New Zealand. She gave an excellent speech in the House against a mock Bill concerned with abolishing youth pay rates. Charlotte bravely spoke against the Bill and did a very accomplished job with her logical and clearly presented speech. Charlotte has been a very proactive Youth MP as she has attended several meetings and events in the Papakura Electorate. She represented me at the Eye on Nature wearable arts event for Auckland schools that was run by the Manukau Beautification Trust in June. She also attended the Papakura Community Network meeting on Zoom in July. It is a real pity that the news media do not highlight this excellent Youth Parliament event that is run every two years. Obviously a large number of year 12 and 13 students are interested in attending as youth members of parliament as the number of applications to participate, grow for every event. The next one will be in 2024. This year’s event really showed us that there are some very competent young people like Charlotte in our schools and universities. Their presentations and the understanding of issues that they demonstrated give us great confidence and hope for the future governance of New Zealand. CCTV coverage is helping keep Papakura safe. I am pleased to endorse the work of the Papakura Local Board and the Town Centre Manager who have supported increased CCTV monitoring for the town. A network of 36 cameras including four automatic number plate recognition devices has provided Counties-Manukau Police with leads in two major inquiries and led to many other incidents being cleared up. Stolen cars, burglaries, shop-lifting and unacceptable behaviour have all been captured on this system, which is proving an effective tool for catching the offenders. Police say having CCTV located and monitored at the Papakura Police station has been a major advantage for Papakura. I also acknowledge our Papakura Crime Watch patrollers who also provide surveillance and added safety across the wider electorate. It is of concern that the end of July figures reveal the number of ram-raids on retailers have soared under Labour, with a more than 500 per cent increase within the first six months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2018. Communities across New Zealand are noticing an increase in these crimes and Labour’s solution to simply subsidise bollards to mitigate damage from cars smashing into retailers, is not enough. Youth offenders must be made to face consequences of their actions and Police should be properly equipped to enforce the law. Providing CCTV technology is an excellent way to help them and I fully endorse the Local Board and the Papakura Town Centre giving their support for this. All the best, keep well, Judith
Hon Judith
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