Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise too as others have done to support the appointment of Judge Kenneth Johnston KC to head the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA). It is an essential function of our democracy that we have independent transparent mechanisms for accountability particularly where uses of force are exercised by the State against members of the public. Obviously the work of the police is important. But also obviously in terms of our human rights-based framework: to be free from unjust or unreasonable search and seizure unlawful and arbitrary detention and the very serious uses of force that police may also exercise when it comes to gun violence for example are some of the most essential rights that we have in our system. So I do want to commend the appointment of someone who has acted as both prosecutor and defence counsel who knows the frameworks within which police exercise these powers and understands the rights—in particular in the criminal justice arena—and understands and knows very well the significance that we as a society and in particular our courts and justice system rightly place on our rights and our liberties being protected against as we say in the courts The mighty force of the State". But I do want to also say that while we are commending ourselves and the Government in this appointment and we are underlining and reflecting on the significance of the work of the Independent Police Conduct Authority that we have to look at the structures within which Ken Johnston KC will be operating. We have to reflect on the fact that just last year it was found in an independent report that police only very rarely refer complaints to the IPCA when they come to police—and that due to a lack of funding only 2 percent of cases when they are referred by police are able to be investigated by the IPCA. So to say that it's a significant institution in upholding our rights and our freedoms but to only fund 2 percent of cases to be investigated is really tying the hands of this new appointee that we're all commending today. We also know that this is an office that has throughout time and in its own reports been found to lack the appropriate powers because it can't prosecute. And we know that transparency is lacking because the IPCA can't make public witness testimonies to it within its investigations. We know that most members of the public know very little about the work of the IPCA and certainly because of a lack of legal aid when it comes to accessing investigations and complaints it can't in fact report what we might think are quite significant breaches of power by the police. And I only point now because I think it is important for us as a House to ground this debate on the motion in the very real issues that the IPCA grapples with by saying that it was again only last year that our police force was found to use force lethally—that is take lives of members of the public—at 11 times the rate of police in England or Wales. And I want us to hold that when the IPCA has—somehow with the tiny resource it has—made recommendations on systemic change that successive Governments have often ignored those recommendations. And I note that in relation to the use of force that is incredibly high that it was seven years ago that a previous IPCA head recommended that the Government introduce law or regulation to say that the Armed Offenders Squad actually can't send its recruits out without formal qualifications because it was found that they do.So these are the types of issues that we're dealing with: it's life or death it's the most fundamental human rights. And we're dealing with an office that's so under-resourced and whose recommendations are so easily ignored that has so few actual powers—that I'm not sure we can really commend ourselves as a society for holding police accountable. And I want to also hold because it's often disputed in this House that Māori—within that same report—were found to be seven times more likely to suffer uses of force by police. And I will finish by quoting—on gun violence and the important work of the IPCA—the former IPCA head when he found that police were routinely escalating situations and "put themselves in positions where firearms were the only option." So while in this House as we go forward we debate crime and punishment we debate safety of our communities and we debate whether or not our rights are in fact protected transparency is upheld and accountability is applied to our State apparatus I want us to also resolve to take notice of the independent work that these expert agencies do where prejudice is found and where safety issues of the public are highlighted—not by those that we routinely villainise here but actually by police themselves. I want us to please—and this is imploring upon Governments to come also because this is a five-year appointment—take more seriously the work of the appointee that we are celebrating today. I want us to respond as a lawmaking body as the Government should when we are told that our regulations and our safety mechanisms for human rights in New Zealand are not working.So with that—and a little bit of grim news on gun violence and the police—I do commend this appointment and I do appreciate the work of the IPCA. I only hope that these powers are strengthened and we take note of the recommendations as they come. Thank you."