Fenton Darien: Statutes Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
Fenton Darien: Statutes Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
[Volume:645;Page:14792] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I am very pleased to make a contribution to the second reading of the Statutes Amendment Bill (No 2) and I think some speakers have already noted the background of Statutes Amendment bills—that they are designed to provide minor technical and non-controversial amendments to existing statutes. The amendments in these bills cannot affect policy change and unanimous cross-party support must be obtained prior to the inclusion of an amendment in a Statutes Amendment Bill. This Statutes Amendment Bill is typical. It sought to amend 14 statutes and there were just two submissions which the Government Administration Committee considered and took advice on. I do commend the cooperation of the select committee and the officials in returning this bill expeditiously to the House. 
I would like to address just one of the statutes that the bill will amend which is section 35(a) of the Crimes Act and that will remove an outdated reference to an offence punishable by death. I must admit that I was somewhat astonished to discover that we still had a reference to the death penalty in statute despite the Abolition of the Death Penalty Act in 1989. 
I am glad to live in a country where we do not have the death penalty. Around 124 countries have abolished the death penalty in law or practice but it troubles me deeply that there are still some notable exceptions such as China Iran the United States and Viet Nam. Those countries accounted for 97 percent of the executions recorded by Amnesty International in 2004. Between 1976 and 2005 1004 people were executed in the United States and over 3000 prisoners were awaiting execution on what is known as death row. In China in 2001 alone a Government crack-down on crime resulted in the execution of at least 1781 people in about 4 months. Those statistics are barbaric. So I am particularly pleased that New Zealand under our Prime Minister Helen Clark has been working with other countries in the United Nations for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide. 
On 18 December 2008 the General Assembly of the United Nations voted by an overwhelming majority for a resolution calling for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty. This was the objective of the World Day Against the Death Penalty held on 10 October. As our Prime Minister said at the time “Capital punishment is the ultimate form of cruel inhuman and degrading treatment. The death penalty violates the right to life … It is known to have been inflicted on the innocent.” Quite simply the death penalty is a failure of justice. 
The first execution in New Zealand was that of a young Maori named Maketu convicted in Auckland in 1842. Walter Bolton was the last to be executed when he was hanged at Mount Eden Prison in 1957. In total there were 83 verified executions for murder and one for treason in New Zealand between those dates. The method of execution was hanging and before 1862 executions were conducted in public. Colour Sergeant James Collins of the 65th Regiment was the first to be executed out of public view and he was executed at Wellington in January 1862. The official method of execution was outlined in an 1880 “Memorandum upon the Execution of Prisoners by Hanging with a Long Drop”. The offences that carried the death penalty in New Zealand were in accordance with English common law murder treason and piracy. 
Interestingly the Labour Party had opposed capital punishment and after it took office in 1935 it commuted all death sentences to life imprisonment. This policy was confirmed by the abolition of the death penalty for murder in 1941. The National Government restored it in 1950 and from 1951 to 1957 there were 18 convictions for murder and eight executions. Labour returned to office in late 1957 and the following year made the death penalty inoperative. 
With that matter seemingly swinging from one situation to another depending on which party was in office it was put to a conscience vote in 1961. Members of Parliament were not forced to vote according to party policy and accordingly 10 members of the National Government voted with the Opposition and capital punishment was removed from the statute book. 
Sandra Goudie 
: Get with the programme. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: I am with the programme; I am talking about one of the— 
Sandra Goudie 
: The history was that it was National that did it. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: No I say to the member that that is not quite correct; it was a conscience vote. With all due respect to the member it was a conscience vote. 
Treason mutiny and treachery in the armed forces are no longer punishable by death under the terms of the Abolition of the Death Penalty Act 1989. The last execution was of Walter Bolton when he was convicted of poisoning his wife Beatrice and was hanged for her murder at Mount Eden Prison. According to the reports at the time it was gruesome and it was believed that some of those in the death chamber had to swing on his legs after the hangman miscalculated and Bolton did not die instantly from a broken neck. 
The death penalty for murder was abolished in New Zealand in 1961 and there were claims that this was due partly to the circumstances surrounding Bolton’s case. But we should not think that this issue is not still alive in the minds of some New Zealanders. At times of perceived increases in violent crime or when there has been a particularly high-profile murder debate about capital punishment comes up and inevitably there is a call for the death penalty again in New Zealand. 
Some believe that the death penalty will deter people from committing crime and although I have empathy with those who have lost a loved one through violent crime the facts from the United States and other countries just do not back that up. In some countries as we know executions go way beyond violent crime; executions for political belief for speaking out against the ruling power for trade union activity for being gay and many other reasons are still being carried out today. 
Although this Statutes Amendment Bill is like others in that its changes are minor technical or inconsequential in nature it is an important moment in New Zealand’s history that the last remaining reference to capital punishment in New Zealand’s statutes is finally being removed. As I said at the beginning of my speech I am glad I live in a country without the death penalty; long may it stay that way.