NZ First wants all young people to do 100 hours of community service between the ages of 15-19, even if they haven't committed a crime.
The party voted to investigate the policy at its conference in Christchurch, although it has to be backed by MPs before being formally adopted.
On Saturday party members gathered for the party's convention and debated policy, known as remits.
It appears the remit was mistakenly placed in the Law and Order section of the debate, rather than a debate on youth affairs.
Community work is a criminal sentence, so NZ First are basicly suggesting that young people be punished without trial, for the "crime" of being young. And its not a trivial sentence - googling around, its the sort of punishment given to people who burgle police stations, serial fraudsters, assault, or biting a police officer.
What's wrong with this? Where do we start? It's punishment without trial, punishment without there even being a criminal offence, and its obviously discriminatory on the basis of age (though, thanks to the way our BORA is written, that wouldn't apply if they only did it to under-16's). Supposedly it will help young people "reconnect" with society, but I doubt anyone will want to connect with any society that regards them as inherently criminal and inherently in need of punishment. What it will encourage is civil disobedience. After all, what's the worst the government will do if you refuse to do your bullshit pedophobic community service? Tell you to do more?