Police Minister Mark Mitchell. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Police Minister Mark Mitchell has been unable to provide any communications or evidence for his assertions the Defence Force would help on the front line at boot camps.
The first of the government's boot camps started in Palmerston North at the end of July.
Earlier, Mitchell had said there would be heavy Defence Force involvement "including on the front line", the New Zealand Herald reported, but the pilot camp does not have this.
In response to an Official Information Act request for communications or evidence for the assertion, the minister said none had been identified.
"My office and I have done an exhaustive search and have not identified any information ... the information requested does not exist," Mitchell said in a statement.
He added he regularly talked with other ministers about government policy but "these conversations would not be captured in scope".
Children's Minister Karen Chhour told the Herald and Newstalk ZB the boot camps would not have military personnel working with teenage offenders.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had said the pilot boot camp in Palmerston North was "close to the Defence assets that are there that can be used, as I understand, from time to time". However, Chhour later said that was not the case.
Chhour also told RNZ on Wednesday NZDF "have been heavily involved."
She said she was "mostly satisifed" with the pilot.
Military-style drills and physical exercise had been popular and might be increased.
"There are no safety or wellbeing concerns with the operation of the programme," Chhour said in a statement.
One teenager has pulled out, which is currently possible because the boot camps have not been legislated for. Once it passes into law next year, leaving the programme won't be an option.
Before the pilot, Oranga Tamariki staff did more than 30 sessions with the NZDF at a youth development unit in Trentham over two weeks, she said.
Documents show Defence staff took part in several workshops that designed the boot camps, and Chhour said Defence maintained an oversight role in the pilot.
Of the 26 staff running the pilot, over 70 percent were Māori or Pasifika and a third were ex-military or police, Chhour said.
