Our "great social progress"

Another international conference is being held in Wellington today. It is about the FGC, or Family Group Conference, a process which was born in NZ in 1989. The Family Group Conference changed child and youth justice. It primarily kept offenders out of court. Today only 16-17 percent of offences go to court. 44 percent of offenders receive warnings only. Ruth Dyson opened the conference this morning with a typical ministerial speech which would have sent me to sleep in a nanosecond. Here she is winding up;

As any proud parent would, I'm going to finish by noting the international success of our baby – again. The FGC has been adopted and adapted around the world as a best practice model. As a country New Zealand can be justifiably proud of this and the great social progress we continue to make.

The great social progress we continue to make! Doesn't that take the cake. Talk about blinkered government.