Harawira Hone: Judicial Retirement Age Bill — Second Reading 
Harawira Hone: Judicial Retirement Age Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:637;Page:7513] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tena tatou katoa i te Whare. Six sentences is all that the Justice and Electoral Committee came back to us with on this Judicial Retirement Age Bill because the report states—and I like this bit: “We resolved not to call for public submissions on this bill as we considered that the effect of the bill was straightforward and uncontroversial.” 
At first glance so it might seem because all the bill talks about is raising the age when judges have to retire from 68 to 70. But when we look at the statistics and we see that Pakeha men live to 77 but Maori men die at around 69 we very quickly realise that becoming a judge is not such a wise career choice for tangata whenua. If we are Maori we ask ourselves how a society that can value its judges so highly can allow its indigenous people to die younger than the rest of the population every single year for as long as statistics have been kept. 
Raising the age for judges to retire fits with the way the rest of the world is going and 70 seems to be the norm. But thankfully this bill is not just about age; it also confirms the independence of the judiciary from politicians and that is a very important principle in a world driven by politics that are clearly anti-Maori. This bill will let judges do their jobs free of any concern about job security and free of the rantings and ravings of loose-lipped politicians who demand that judges jump through their twisted hoops or be dumped from the bench. The judiciary needs as much separation from that kind of thinking as possible if it is to function effectively and any protection this bill can provide will be welcome. 
The other positive spin-off of course is that the bill enables the judiciary to retain the expertise and experience of people who still have much to offer. It is appropriate here that I mihi to our longest-serving judge Eddie Taihakurei Durie who has served in a wide range of jurisdictions for more than 32 years. Hon Justice Durie the first Maori Chief Judge of the Maori Land Court and later a judge of the High Court retired just a couple of months ago in December 2006. During his time as chairman of the Waitangi Tribunal Justice Durie oversaw many important land claim reports that led to the Treaty of Waitangi being enshrined in law almost 20 years ago. During his time he also promoted the importance of the values and ethics of Maori research and showed how a lot of research was being judged according to the colonisers’ agenda and ignored what he described as “the depth of the ancestral opinions that influenced Maori thinking”. 
Yet this most brilliant of judicial minds is now lost to us because he is too old—a huge loss to Maoridom to the judiciary and to our society at large. This is a man who at 34 was the youngest judicial appointment to the Maori Land Court rose to become Chief Maori Land Court Judge then at the tender age of 40 became the first Maori appointed to the High Court. Now because he has reached the age of 68 his judicial expertise is lost to us all. 
How frustrating that must be for him particularly in the light of the work that his brother Professor Mason Durie has done in voicing the experiences of older Maori in his 2002 report  
Nga Ahuatanga Noho o te Hunga Pakeke Maori: E tu te huru ma haramai e noho 
 subtitled “To the elderly who have reached the pinnacle remain as a guiding light for us all”. Mason Durie’s report recognises clearly that Maori still hold dear to the view that kaumatua and kuia are to be valued for the wisdom experience and learning they bring to everyday life and also recognises the many and varied roles expected of an older Maori person: “The roles of kaumatua include: resolving disputes and conflicts between families and between iwi carrying the culture recognising and encouraging the potential of younger members cultural guidance and advice maintenance of protocol reception and care of visitors protection and nurturing of younger adults and children performance of ceremonial duties spiritual leadership and attendance at tangihanga.” So much is expected of our old people that one gets dizzy just thinking about it. Maybe that is what Te Ururoa Flavell means when he says that we need to keep going to the gym every day just to train for our greatest role: being old. 
For some cultures getting shunted into an old people’s home and left to die lonely is what an old person has to look forward to. But for Maori being a kaumatua or kuia is an extremely busy and productive time. For Maori being old is not a sin. It is an opportunity to use one’s experience to help guide the next generations and of course to help spoil the mokopuna. 
Making our most experienced and capable judges redundant because they have reached a particular age simply does not make sense. Extending the age for retirement has to be a good idea and the case of the Hon Justice Eddie Durie simply confirms the need for this bill. 
This brings me naturally to the question of what we do with people of such knowledge people who have the respect of all sectors of our society and the confidence of jurists the world over. Well it just so happens that there may indeed be a position befitting a man of such unquestioned qualification in the field of Treaty issues. On Waitangi Day I proposed the idea of a Treaty Commissioner to protect and promote the rights and interests of the Treaty of Waitangi in the same way that Laurie O’Reilly so passionately advocated for children’s rights during his time as Commissioner for Children. I referred to the Treaty Commissioner’s role in my reply to the Prime Minister’s speech and I repeat that role here: to honour the vision of those who signed the Treaty; to promote the Treaty’s commitment to partnership; to support Maori rights to control and authority over their treasures; to ensure that Waitangi Day is meaningful for all citizens of Aotearoa; to review any decision made in respect of the Treaty by the Government; to raise awareness and understanding of the Treaty; to be an advocate for the Treaty; and to promote the proper application of the Treaty in legislation. 
The next thing I thought about of course was the kind of expertise experience and status required for such a key role: the intellectual capacity to review Government decisions regarding the Treaty; the legislative know-how to be able to promote the application of the Treaty across our statutes; the background required to honour the vision of those who signed the Treaty; and the special leadership needed to make the Treaty live in the hearts and minds of all citizens of Aotearoa. When I started looking for suitable contenders one name kept coming to mind: the Hon Justice Eddie Durie a hugely significant figure in our legal landscape who is noted for saying: “If Maori are the tangata whenua the original people then Pakeha are the tangata Tiriti those who belong to this land by right of the Treaty.” 
The Maori Party welcomes this Judicial Retirement Age Bill as a positive way of keeping the senior members of the judiciary so that we can keep some of the finest thinkers and practitioners of the legal profession and for opening up the pool of contenders for the unique position of New Zealand’s first Treaty Commissioner. We look forward to working with those proactive and intellectually superior politicians and their equally superior parties who are willing to support the establishment of this new position. Kia ora tatou. Tena koe.