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Two of the nine teens in the Government’s bootcamp pilot are missing in the days after another participant died in a car accident. 

Oranga Tamariki deputy chief executive Tusha Penny, appearing before a Parliament select committee, confirmed two of the nine pilot participants had absconded and their location was currently unknown. 

Speaking to media afterwards, Penny said: “We always said from the beginning that transition was going to be the most difficult part of the 12-month programme of MSA [Military-Style Academy]. 

“That’s not just Oranga Tamariki saying that. That’s experts, academics, community NGOs and partners who are in this space. It’s tough. 

“We have had a significant tragedy and I really want to acknowledge the young person’s whānau. It’s pretty recent, and it’s raw." 

The person who absconded from the tangi was on bail following a court appearance, she said. 

“One condition was he was to be accompanied by two Oranga Tamariki staff. He went to the tangi and it was held at a private home with about 150 mourners, and he took the opportunity to abscond.” 

″It’s not ideal ... we’ve started a review to look at circumstances leading to that, and learn from any failings we have." 

The second youth was in a “community placement” with whānau when they absconded the day after the tangi, Penny said. 

“They were meant to be with their family. The key message is we’re not going to give up ... we’re working with police to locate both.” 

• Two bootcamp teens are missing as Oranga Tamariki officials front on participant’s death

She didn’t know if the two teens were thought to be together. 

Penny didn’t have specific concerns for the health and safety of the missing teens, but acknowledged the impact of last week’s tragedy. 

“A tragic death like this just doesn’t happen. It’s highly traumatic for these young boys. We want to find them. They need to have contact with their social worker, their mentor and their family. 

Two teens had been charged, but one of them had since had their charges withdrawn. 

A missing teen was one of those charged, she said. 

“I have to be very careful what I say, to protect their identity – they’re still young. We need to be open and transparent, but there’s only so much I can say at this time.” 

Penny said Oranga Tamariki had already seen a change in the boys in the bootcamp programme. 

“One is in employment. Another is doing work experience. Another is going into employment. And others are in training.” 

At any one time across the country they always had a handful of young people that had absconded and who Oranga Tamariki and police were looking for, Penny said. 

“[With these two] we just want to locate them. One to get him back to his whānau and the other to make sure we take back into our custody. 

“These events may happen again. This is the transition phase, we are dealing with complex, high-risk youth offenders.” 

Children’s Minister Karen Chhour yesterday told the Herald she was aware of just one pilot participant absconding. 

A spokeswoman for Chhour this morning said the minister could only work with what information she was provided, noting how the situation was moving “very quickly”. 

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon didn’t comment on the matter when asked by the Herald, referring queries to Chhour. 

Official expects future offending 

The pilot participants were released from the Palmerston North youth justice facility in October and had been in the community phase of the programme. 

Under questioning from Labour’s children’s spokeswoman Willow-Jean Prime, Penny acknowledged two of the pilot participants had been arrested with one set of the charges being withdrawn over the course of the programme. 

Penny said the transition was still in its “early” stages”, it had been “tough”, and it will “keep being tough”, but she said, “we are not going to give up”. 

“Do I think there will be future offending? Absolutely,” she said. 

“It’s tough and I’m not stepping away from that. It’s really hard. But I reiterate the message, we’re not going to give up, and that was the commitment we gave to them and whanau.” 

But Penny said there were also some bright points, like one of the participants being in full-time employment, another in work experience, and others in education courses. 

She shared the story of one participant who had begun saying, “I love you”, when speaking with his mother on the phone from a youth justice residence. 

“I know this has been incredibly politicised ... I am not saying the whole thing has been successful ... I am not saying this is the panacea, I am not saying this is the answer, but I’m definitely saying what we are seeing could be an improvement for youth justice across the board with an operating model.” 

Other examples of the “little bit of magic that we’re starting to see”, including improved educational attainment for the young men, “almost no harm incidents” in the residence “with a cohort we would usually never put together”. 

“There was one episode of a minimal use-of-force when we moved to secure. That is remarkable,” Penny said. 

She said this was “by no means perfect”, but “there is some potential there”. 

Penny spoke of the need to work better with community groups when the participants leave the residences as “government agencies are not going to fix the transition problem in itself”. 

Oranga Tamariki deputy chief executive Tusha Penny (right) speaks to a Parliament select committee about the recent death of a participant in the Government's bootcamp pilot. Photo / Adam Pearse 

Green MP Tamatha Paul, however, made the point that despite the interventions, some of the youths were still allegedly reoffending or absconding. She suggested this was a failure of the youth justice residences and the result of taking the young men away from their communities. 

Asked if Oranga Tamariki would look at shutting down the residences in response, Penny said she couldn’t provide that commitment. 

“But what I can say is I agree with you that the best place of rangatahi is to be in their own community, for obvious reasons, with whanau, and particularly if we are looking at expanding a mentoring model that comes in, the mentors and mana whenua need to be there.” 

Penny said there was a “therapeutic model and framework” as part of the programme, including with iwi coming into the residences. 

The Government plans to make the military-style academy regime permanent through legislation that is working its way through Parliament currently. 

One of the criticisms of the Government’s approach has been the lack of transparency around safeguards that will be introduced to protect the young people from use-of-force powers being granted to staff. 

Those safeguards aren’t outlined in the legislation and will instead by introduced at a later date, though they will be needed before the legislation can become operational. 

Paul raised the lack of clarity about the safeguards during the select committee. 

Nicolette Dickson, another Oranga Tamariki deputy chief executive, said those concerns would be “canvassed through the legislative process”. 

“We are really focused on how we make our residences as safe as they possibly can be now and how do we put the right interventions in place that prevent children and young people escalating to the need for residential care.” 

Pilot participant dies in multi-vehicle crash 

Oranga Tamariki yesterday confirmed one of the pilot participants had absconded during the tangi for one of his fellow participants who died last week. 

Penny said the second participant absconded the day after the tangi, which was held on Tuesday. 

It was understood a pilot participant was the single fatality in a horrific crash on Wednesday last week on State Highway 1 near Tīrau involving three vehicles, including a tourist bus, which injured 14 others. 

In a statement, Penny confirmed a participant had died “as a result of an accident” but gave no further details, citing a police investigation. 

Police did not answer the Herald’s questions about the incident. 

Penny said Oranga Tamariki was offering support to the boy’s whānau. The agency was also conducting an investigation alongside police. 

The committee’s chair, National MP Joseph Mooney, was clearly emotional at one point when acknowledging the death. 

“I worked as a youth advocate, I worked as a criminal lawyer across New Zealand, and I totally understand that point you make around just how tough it really is. It is a massive thing to try and the track, change the lives.” 

The crash that claimed the life of a young bootcamp pilot participant prompted a heavy emergency response. Photo / Supplied 

Paul this morning shared an online post from abuse in state care survivor Tū Chapman that described the boy’s death “in the newly established bootcamps set up by this abusive Government”. 

In a later statement, Paul said she hoped to amplify Chapman’s voice as an abuse survivor but noted the death occurred as a result of a car accident. 

Speaking to the Herald, Children’s Minister Karen Chhour said she was shocked by the incident and referenced the devastation the pilot participants and staff would be feeling. 

“They have a connection with this young man and it’d be quite devastating for them to go through this right now as well,” she said. 

“Oranga Tamariki is supporting all these young men and the people that have worked with these young men because this is devastating for all of us.” 

She confirmed Oranga Tamariki would be “doing everything we can” to support the boy’s whānau, alongside the other participants who she believed had “become like a family”. 

The 10 teens, all of whom aged 15-17 and had been recidivist offenders, had been residing in the community after completing the pilot’s three-month in-residence phase at Palmerston North’s youth justice facility. In the remaining nine months, the teens had been placed with whānau or social services and supported by personal mentors. 

Asked if she was aware if the young man had violated any of the pilot’s rules ahead of his death, Chhour cited the ongoing investigation. 

“It’s not appropriate for me to comment on the circumstances or anything that’s happened until this investigation’s happened.” 

The boy’s tangi [funeral] was held on Tuesday. Chhour said she attended in a personal capacity. 

“I’d met this young man, I was proud of what he was trying to achieve and I felt like supporting the family was the right thing to do,” she said. 

“I was very grateful for them allowing me to attend the funeral in support, especially for such a private and personal moment, to hear the stories and to hear how he was really proud of where he was going and what he was doing. 

“The family was really proud of what they were seeing as well [which] was a bit of a comfort to hear that.” 

Act leader David Seymour and Children's Minister Karen Chhour look at the type of footwear youth at the new military academy pilot would receive. Photo / RNZ 

It was at the boy’s tangi that the other bootcamp participant escaped police and Oranga Tamariki staff and is currently missing. Waikato police are seeking to arrest the participant for breaching compassionate bail. 

Oranga Tamariki yesterday said the boy who absconded had been granted bail on “compassionate grounds” to attend the tangi. 

Chhour said the boy had been in a youth justice facility, having re-offended since re-entering the community. 

She confirmed he was the same participant referenced in her statement on November 21, revealing how one of the 10 teens had allegedly re-offended. 

“I’m saddened that this young person has not taken this opportunity at a second chance,” she said at the time. 

“We were hopeful this would not occur, but we understand the complexities in the lives of these young people. Ultimately, what they do with these opportunities is up to them.” 

Chhour yesterday said it was the only incident of a pilot participant re-offending she was aware of. 

She said she didn’t see the boy abscond at the tangi and didn’t know when it occurred. 

“There’ll be more details that will come out once the investigation has happened, I wasn’t aware at the time that that had happened and I’m just disappointed at the end of the day that it did.” 

She wouldn’t say whether Oranga Tamariki or police had been in charge of monitoring the boy, claiming that was an “operational” matter. 

However, she said Oranga Tamariki and police staff were “working really hard in making sure that we locate this young man”. 

Asked whether this constituted a failure on Oranga Tamariki’s part, Chhour again cited the ongoing review. 

“I can’t really comment until I know the exact details and there will be a review into both incidents that will come my way and then I’ll know more detail.” 

Chhour couldn’t say when the investigations would be completed but described the review into the absconding incident as “rapid”. 

Prime said it was “very tragic” the young man had passed away but she remained concerned about the Government’s bootcamps. 

“The Government needs to stop this harmful experiment and should not push ahead with their legislation to entrench them,” she told the Herald. 

“The Prime Minister should care.” 

Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for ��һ�ǿ����� 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.