Last week I had a rather spirited exchange in the House when debating a Bill which among other things, lowers the age of those liable to appear in front of the Youth Court.

Inevitably, the name of Bailey Junior Kurariki came up in debate - raised by someone other than me. When I had my turn to speak, I said that given his background, it was virtually inevitable that he was going to turn out badly, and that despite extensive efforts to educate and socialise him while in custody, his reoffending on release was almost guaranteed. This is because at age twelve, when Kurariki was convicted of manslaughter, it is very difficult to repair damage done in early childhood.

Cue frenzied shrieking from Lianne Dalziel, while Rajan Prasad kept yelling “he was hounded”, referring to the fact that several of Kurariki’s parole breaches were for smoking marijuana. Ignoring the fact that no use of drugs was a condition of his parole, Prasad may have just had a point if the only breaches were smoking weed. As I said in the House however, no-one hounded him into beating up his girlfriend, for which it now transpires he has served a short prison sentence.

It was with no pleasure that I read on Saturday that Kurariki has now allegedly groped, and masturbated in front of two female journalists who went to interview him. I say I derive no pleasure from reading this because it is surely merely the next step on his journey back to prison after really hurting someone else.

We must face up to the fact that giving women like Kurariki’s mother welfare money without any obligation on how it is spent is a disastrous policy. Although it is undoubtedly true that some children from homes bereft of values and proper nuturing make something of their lives – just as some from perfectly good homes turn out badly – we must take a long hard look at our welfare system if we expect to turn things around.

Chief Youth Judge Andrew Becroft announced recently that the number of young offenders appearing in the Youth Court had doubled since 1995. That alone tells us there is something very wrong in our system.