Fox Marama: Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFox Marama: Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 25 November 2014. Volume:702;Page:796. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party):The Māori Party rises today in support of the first reading of the Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill. But let me make it quite clear from the outset that our support in subsequent stages is conditional upon our concerns being addressed. We agree that all parties should participate in the debate on how best to deal with the evolving threat posed by foreign terrorist fighters but let us first take the issue of the war on terror in our own homes. It is only appropriate on this White Ribbon Day that we consider the horrendous impact of violence wreaked upon far too many families and homes in this beautiful land of ours. On average 14 women are killed every year. We must put a stop to this behaviour by demonstrating leadership. One of our own party stalwarts passed away just days ago as she journeyed to join the White Ribbon ride.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): For your benefit this is a debate on another subject and I would ask the member to come back and just focus on that.MARAMA FOX: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I wanted to draw the parallels between violence away and violence at home. The violence at home—we feel that this piece of legislation may have an impact on the injustices that we see upon our own people Māori in this country if we approve the surveillance and the warrants being heaped out without due consideration. We already see in this country that Māori are 50 percent more likely to be prosecuted 50 percent more likely to be sentenced and 50 percent more likely to have longer sentences for the same crime as non-Māori in this country. We are concerned about that sort of racial profiling in regard to this piece of legislation; hence we wanted to make the correlation between violence in our own country and violence overseas.First let us deal with what is happening here. We think that this piece of legislation will have an impact on our people as I have pointed out. We achieve confidence only if we ask the affected people and involve them in solutions to those issues. We ask how this will occur in such a reduced time for public involvement with a shortened select committee period. We are greatly concerned about the impact of the bill to make it possible to render a person stateless by cancelling their passport. We want to be clear about the practice of accountabilities and transparencies around these decisions. One of the issues raised by the Human Rights Commission is that a basic premise of any measure to address terrorism is that it should not be discriminatory. The commission’s advice raises the issue of ethnic profiling and stereotyping founded on the grounds of discrimination.I think we need to pause and recall the horror in 2001. We all have been affected and scarred by that. But what happened was that there was a fear that indigenous populations who refused to be silent about their concerns at home were viewed if not as terrorists then at least as traitors who were weakening the war effort. In a monograph produced by Dr Joanna Kidman she stated that the issues of national loyalty and cultural allegiance quickly became a question of where people sat on the “axis of evil”—that is the forces of anti-civilisation. In Australia academics suspected of moral equivocation about terrorism were named and shamed in Parliament. Legislation in the United States Britain and Australia all aim to identify people who are presumed to be dangerous or antisocial or who pose a threat to the American British or Australian way of life. The enemy within became interpreted as ethnic minorities and asylum seekers.Of course there is a well-known and public linkage that has been made in our own jurisdiction about a supposed association between Māori activism and terrorist activity. We do not want a repeat of Operation Eight. We do not want to fuel a fire of hate speech that too frequently emerges from any concentration of terrorism associated with particular religions nationalities or civilisations. We have concerns that a reduction in the controls around warrants and an increase of power in regard to surveillance and the removal of passports may negatively impact on the life of Māori already suffering injustice in this country.We have strong and heartfelt concerns about the possible implications of this bill but we also believe it is irresponsible to take a stand without hearing from those New Zealanders who take up the call on human rights on our behalf. We support the first reading to enable that kōrero to happen. Kia ora.