Youth offenders who repeatedly flout the law need to be locked up, National police spokesman Mark Mitchell says.

He told a meeting of the Northland business community in Whangārei yesterday that recidivist young offenders should be in a justice facility.

“We’d still have a graduated response within the justice system, but recidivist offenders need to go into a youth justice facility.”

He has visited these facilities, and young people in them had access to education and the staff were passionate about helping them turn their lives around, Mitchell said.

He said social intervention would be required too, and would not work for very young offenders, such as 7-year-olds who had taken part in ram raids.

His comments came on the day the Government announced a new youth crime package, extending youth engagement and employment programmes to more young people.

The package gives additional funding to two programmes to help young people to re-engage with education and/or sustainable employment.

An extra $23 million over three years to extend the He Poutama Rangatahi initiative providing community-led support for at-risk youth would be focused in areas with higher levels of youth crime, including Northland.

“Youth crime is clearly an issue right now, particularly in Auckland. In response to this the Government is investing heavily in programmes that create opportunities for young people to break the cycle of crime,” Police Minister Chris Hipkins said in a statement.

Mitchell had not yet seen the announcement at the meeting in Whangārei, National’s Justice spokesman Paul Goldsmith said in a statement the package was just “window-dressing”.

“Once again, victims are not at the heart of Labour’s announcement. More support has been announced for offenders, while victims are still at the back of the queue.

“National will deal more effectively with the social drivers of crime, such as truancy, and we will ensure that the most serious repeat offenders do face consequences for their actions.”

Yesterday’s meeting, hosted by the Northland Chamber of Commerce, was held to discuss crime and safety in the region.

National MP Shane Reti opened the meeting by listing a number of ram raids and burglaries committed in Northland over the last few months, including a burglary of OPSM Whangārei in the early hours of yesterday morning.

A door had been smashed by thieves to gain entry to the building, and some stock was stolen, believed to be mainly sunglasses. Police told the Advocate inquiries were ongoing.

A number of people, some from businesses that had been subject to ram raids attended the meeting, and asked about National’s plans to deal with crime and an apparent lack of police on the streets.

Mitchell said National would introduce a ratio of police that they would maintain, but would not say yet what that would be.

“We will have to figure out a ratio and we can’t do that until we’re in government.”

A strong police presence would deter crime, he added.

Mitchell also criticised the repeal of the three strikes legislation, which the National Party has said it will reinstate if it returns to government.