title: ʺThree Strikesʺ sentencing: Another blow for Māori

authors: Rumbles, Wayne

abstract: On June 1, 2010 the Sentencing and Parole Reform Act 2010 amended the Sentencing Act and introduced into New Zealand the so-called “three strikes” sentencing regime. The rationale for introducing this sentencing regime was that it would protect the public, deter offenders, and improve public confidence in the criminal justice system. The stated purpose of the Act is:
• To deny parole to certain repeat offender and to offenders guilty of the worst murders.
• Impose maximum terms of imprisonment on persistent repeat offenders who continue to commit serious violent offences.
This legislative comment will argue that this regime will disproportionately impact on Māori who are already over represented in the criminal justice system at every level. The Department of Corrections has reaffirmed that amplification of Māori within the system is at least in part due to systemic factors that operate at one or more steps of the criminal justice process which make it more likely for Māori to be apprehended, arrested, charged, convicted or imprisoned, with the result that Māori “accumulate” in the system in greater numbers. Given that there is some systematic bias discernable around Māori in the criminal justice system, any habitual offender-sentencing regime will disproportionately impact on Māori, feeding a cycle of increasing Māori incarceration.

text: ʺThree Strikesʺ sentencing: Another blow for Māori On June 1, 2010 the Sentencing and Parole Reform Act 2010 amended the Sentencing Act and introduced into New Zealand the so-called “three strikes” sentencing regime. The rationale for introducing this sentencing regime was that it would protect the public, deter offenders, and improve public confidence in the criminal justice system. The stated purpose of the Act is:
• To deny parole to certain repeat offender and to offenders guilty of the worst murders.
• Impose maximum terms of imprisonment on persistent repeat offenders who continue to commit serious violent offences.
This legislative comment will argue that this regime will disproportionately impact on Māori who are already over represented in the criminal justice system at every level. The Department of Corrections has reaffirmed that amplification of Māori within the system is at least in part due to systemic factors that operate at one or more steps of the criminal justice process which make it more likely for Māori to be apprehended, arrested, charged, convicted or imprisoned, with the result that Māori “accumulate” in the system in greater numbers. Given that there is some systematic bias discernable around Māori in the criminal justice system, any habitual offender-sentencing regime will disproportionately impact on Māori, feeding a cycle of increasing Māori incarceration.

year: 2011

title: End-user informed demographic projections for Hamilton up to 2041

authors: Cameron, Michael Patrick

subjects: cohort component model

abstract: This report provides a set of projections of the population of Hamilton City and the larger Hamilton Zone. The projections have been calculated by means of the cohort component model. The projections can be considered alongside official Statistics New Zealand projections, but differ from the latter in terms of assumptions made about net migration. These assumptions constitute a number of scenarios that were informed by the Hamilton City Council and local consultations. These scenarios are linked to the potential impact of a number of economic development activities. The report also contains projections of the number of households, the labour force and two ethnic groups: Māori and New Zealand Europeans. In addition, a dwellings-based methodology is used to produce small area (Census Area Unit) projections. Across the scenarios, Hamilton City’s projected population growth over the next two decades ranges from 13.8 percent to 36.0 percent. This is between 1.5 to 12.2 percentage points higher than the corresponding projected national growth.

text: End-user informed demographic projections for Hamilton up to 2041 This report provides a set of projections of the population of Hamilton City and the larger Hamilton Zone. The projections have been calculated by means of the cohort component model. The projections can be considered alongside official Statistics New Zealand projections, but differ from the latter in terms of assumptions made about net migration. These assumptions constitute a number of scenarios that were informed by the Hamilton City Council and local consultations. These scenarios are linked to the potential impact of a number of economic development activities. The report also contains projections of the number of households, the labour force and two ethnic groups: Māori and New Zealand Europeans. In addition, a dwellings-based methodology is used to produce small area (Census Area Unit) projections. Across the scenarios, Hamilton City’s projected population growth over the next two decades ranges from 13.8 percent to 36.0 percent. This is between 1.5 to 12.2 percentage points higher than the corresponding projected national growth.

year: 2007-12

title: Spectre of jurisdiction: Supreme court of New South Wales and the British subject in Aotearoa/New Zealand 1823-41

authors: Rumbles, Wayne

abstract: This paper focuses on the period prior to the Treaty of Waitangi when the Supreme Court of New South Wales had jurisdiction over British subjects living in the ‘Islands of New Zealand’. It is acknowledged that there were many factors driving the colonial endeavour in New Zealand. However it was in this period that the raw materials of the colonial state were formed: namely, a people who became an imagined community, with an emerging sense of society or culture, occupying a bounded and mapped territory. One, perhaps unlikely, catalyst for this process was the unstable, partial and largely ineffectual jurisdiction of the New South Wales Supreme Court.

text: Spectre of jurisdiction: Supreme court of New South Wales and the British subject in Aotearoa/New Zealand 1823-41 This paper focuses on the period prior to the Treaty of Waitangi when the Supreme Court of New South Wales had jurisdiction over British subjects living in the ‘Islands of New Zealand’. It is acknowledged that there were many factors driving the colonial endeavour in New Zealand. However it was in this period that the raw materials of the colonial state were formed: namely, a people who became an imagined community, with an emerging sense of society or culture, occupying a bounded and mapped territory. One, perhaps unlikely, catalyst for this process was the unstable, partial and largely ineffectual jurisdiction of the New South Wales Supreme Court.

year: 2011