Borrows Chester: Independent Police Conduct Authority Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Borrows Chester: Independent Police Conduct Authority Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:641;Page:11680] 
CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the Independent Police Conduct Authority Amendment Bill. Again as we have moved through the Committee stage and so come to the third reading I can confirm that National supports this legislation because it is necessary. The fact is that this bill will give more independence to what was the Police Complaints Authority and is now quite rightly called the Independent Police Conduct Authority. With more independence will come the ability for the public to scrutinise what is happening within the authority and of course probably more important—or at least as important—the ability of the authority to scrutinise the actions of the police. 
I find it a shame that a person cannot support more scrutiny of the police and of the way they do their work without then being told he or she is anti-police or is stirring the pot by for instance recommending that there needs to be a little more transparency. I guess I come at this not only as one who has been “the investigated” through the Police Complaints Authority but as one who in another life has been “the investigator” on behalf of the authority. Public perception has always been that having the police investigate themselves is less than satisfactory. Although it happens in other areas of our society the fact is that there is a huge imbalance of power between the average member of the public and members of the police who are carrying out an inquiry an investigation or a prosecution. 
Historically that perception has come through—the lack of fairness and the need to counter that imbalance in order to maintain a “rule of law” type of fairness within this very strong body that is the New Zealand Police. It has also come out of recent proceedings within our courts and the ongoing investigation. Obviously I am speaking about the complaints made by Louise Nicholas and what flowed on from those. 
 The bill will allow greater speed and handling of complaints as well. What we have found on the Law and Order Committee with the Police Complaints Authority reporting to us has been a huge carry-over year to year of matters that have not been finalised because they are largely waiting for the police to get around to fully investigating the complaints before them and because of the lack of an ability for instance for the Police Complaints Authority to be able to crack the whip and demand a response because it is requiring another Government agency to carry out its work for it. As we know the police have been under-resourced and have had to work on other investigations that take them away from this most important business. 
Initially the Police Complaints Authority could not tell us how much it was carrying over from one year to another and only in recent times has it been able to tell us the exact figure. It worked out to be about 40 percent. Having the scrutineer to be kept at bay or to be beholden to the organisation it is supposed to be scrutinising is not the way for a public scrutineer to be treated. So granting more independence is a good thing and we look forward to learning more about what is before the Independent Police Conduct Authority and the reception it will get from the police and the respect and the confidence that it gains from the public. 
I want to touch on part of the discussion raised by the Maori Party at the Committee stage. We had some sympathy for two amendments that those members put forward. One seemed to have some significant validity but it came up at the last minute and it was difficult to be able to gain support for it. The first thing the Maori Party wanted to do was to have a separate Maori branch if you like of the Independent Police Conduct Authority to investigate complaints made by Maori. The second amendment was to install an appellate body for Maori that they could complain to which would then make suggestions back down to the authority about how matters would be resolved. The Maori Party attempted to do some fixing up in regard to this and a number of National members had some sympathy for that. It was really a lack of time and the way in which the matter was raised that prevented us from supporting the matter at that time. 
I do believe that the fact that five authorities will be created under this legislation allows Parliament to make appointments that may at least go some way to addressing the Maori Party’s concerns. The point needs to be made too that strong accusations of institutional racism were made by our colleagues in the Maori Party and there is some basis for those points. I feel the need to say that we can accept where these accusations come from; Maori are overrepresented in prison numbers and vastly overrepresented in numbers of people arrested and I have to say from some experience that Maori turn out to be the offenders because frequently they are the targets. 
 Sometimes I guess it is a little bit like someone who always fishes in the fishing holes. There are two groups of young guys walking down the street; one has a majority of Pakeha one has a majority of Maori. The policemen are in a police car driving down the road and maybe there are just two groups and the cops are doing their job and they think they will stop and have a yarn to those guys. They wonder whom they will have a yarn to and they look up and see say Billy Smith. They might say: “That is Bobby Smith’s boy and I know him from the footy club”—or they know him from the RSA or from here or there—“and that is fine. Who is on the other side of the street? Well that is some little Maori chap and I know his old man because I locked him up.” So they stop and talk to those guys who get a bit upset and call the police a few names and the police decide to go through their pockets to find what is in them. Maybe it is an illegal substance a screwdriver or whatever. There is an argument or an accusation and there are arrests for disorderly behaviour or for whatever is in the pockets but they never find out what is in the pockets of the little white kids walking down the street. 
I do not believe that that is a conscious form of racism but it is a form of bias that exists. The police in that example never knew what was in the pockets of the little white guys—and whether or not we accept it or people find it is comfortable to think about it happening in that way that is the way it happens. Whatever the police find in the pockets only goes to reinforce what they have in their heads. 
We in the National Party made the point at the time that the Maori Party made its amendment known to us that we believe we should live in a country where there is one law for all. People in this House do not like the phrase “one law for all” but I would like to reinforce this point. When the National Party talks about one law for all it is talking about an aspiration. We want to live in a country where there is one law for all so we do not see a need for a specific branch of the Independent Police Conduct Authority. We want to live in a country where people are equal before the law. We do not pretend for one moment that that situation currently exists in this country. I know that I hear Maori particularly saying when we talk about one law for all: “Bring it on.” because they long for a day when there is one law for all and when everyone will be treated in exactly the same way. But in relation to law and order matters Maori because they are overrepresented in negative statistics within this country are limited in their ability to take on this arm of the State. They are limited for instance in terms of finance. They are limited to legal aid solicitors and all the constraints that the Legal Services Agency puts on their ability to defend themselves as opposed to the ability of Pakeha and other races who do have other options. 
I accept that I have wandered a little from this third reading debate but I do want to make the point that I believe strongly that the Independent Police Conduct Authority is a step up for all of us and I believe that Maori will be far better served and will have less reason to doubt the scrutiny that the police come under as a result of the implementation of this legislation. I am proud to support this bill and I am also proud that my party so strongly supports it.