Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's exciting for me to rise to speak in support of the creation of the Criminal Cases Review Commission today. I advocated for this as part of my role on the executive of the Criminal Bar Association of New Zealand for some years as we watched the fairness of our justice system decline under the types of cuts that were implemented by the previous Government. I think most people in New Zealand would be shocked to find that there is actually a Court of Appeal judgment ruling our legal aid system unlawful for the damage that it was doing to access to justice in New Zealand. That was under the National Party Minister the Hon Judith Collins. I was part of that case and it was heartbreaking—Hon Dr Nick Smith: What are you implying?GOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN: —to watch a fair and free criminal justice system—what am I implying?Hon Dr Nick Smith: Yeah.GOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN: The Court of Appeal ruled the legal aid cuts unlawful; that it is hard to find fairness in a system where access to justice is only available for the rich. I'm not implying that; I'm saying it outright. The Court of Appeal found it and the judgment stands. The judgment stands. So we're trying to fix that. We're trying to make justice available.Part of the right to justice is the right to fair process. Most people know about the right to defence counsel the right to fair and transparent proceedings and the right to impartiality but another aspect of that right is the right to appeal—appeal against unfair convictions and sentences. Part of the legal aid cuts that made our system of justice unfair was that the costs of an appeal were cut—I think they're down to about $1700.Now to bring an appeal you have to have counsel that's at least as senior as the trial counsel. That lawyer has to go through the transcripts of the trial through the evidence that was disclosed before trial look at possible new evidence—and Teina Pora's case has been raised; that was complex new evidence—look at the possibility of new witnesses and see if any unfairness occurred as the result of the conduct of either the sitting judge or the previous trial counsel. That's a huge job and we've seen people languishing in prison because they don't have access to that right. It's not being facilitated properly. It's not being funded properly and they are the victims actually. So when you think about Are we thinking about the victims?"—unfairly tried wrongfully convicted accused persons are the victims and we owe it to them to rectify that.Now this commission will sit not as a decision maker—this was one of the questions raised by the previous speaker the Hon Mark Mitchell. This isn't a body that's going to be making decisions in our criminal justice system; this is a body that will filter these cases and see if there is cause to have the case raised before our appeal courts. The appeal courts will still remain the judges and the decision makers on appeal cases but this is a way that experts can actually have a look at the case and can make decisions about whether it is likely that a miscarriage of justice occurred. We haven't had that so people do languish in prison waiting for a lawyer waiting to find someone that's willing to do it on the measly pay that the legal aid system now allows for appeals—it treats it like it's a bit of admin on the side and that's just not true.We need experts to assess whether or not a miscarriage of justice has occurred—whether it's likely—and to refer them up to the court. It will actually filter out cases also that shouldn't be before the court. So sometimes we do have abuses of that process with overly litigious convicted persons and we get them constantly before the court and this will filter that out as well. So it will make our criminal justice system much more efficient much more accessible and much more fair and expert which is why this is a good day. We're starting to go down the road that other like-minded nations have gone down whether that's England or Scandinavian countries who do actually prioritise fairness and who do recognise that unfairness sometimes does occur for lack of resources and that that's not OK. So I commend this bill to the House. It is a proud day for our system of justice. Thank you."