Kedgley Sue: Urgent Debates — Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct—Report 
Kedgley Sue: Urgent Debates — Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct—Report 
[Volume:638;Page:8542] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party is particularly pleased that the Commissioner of Police has at long last offered an unequivocal public apology and thereby made an implicit admission of guilt by the police for what this inquiry has uncovered and the harm that has been done to so many New Zealand women over the past few decades in particular to women who have been abused by police officers to women whose complaints were not taken seriously by police officers and to women who were turned away from police stations and so forth. 
I believe that both the apology by the commissioner and this report are important steps in helping to close this tragic saga but as my colleague Keith Locke has said much more needs to be done. We need processes to reassure New Zealand women that the culture of violence and abuse that flourished in certain parts of the force and which has been documented in this report will no longer be tolerated and that any complaints of sexual abuse made to the police in the future will be treated with the utmost seriousness with compassion and with respect. 
 The Minister of Police made a public statement today that the public can have confidence in the calibre of police investigations into allegations of sexual assault made by police officers and that women will feel reassured and safe about reporting sexual violence offences. Sadly I am afraid that this is not the case. The truth is that most women who have been raped do not take their cases to the police because they believe they will be damaged and re-victimised all over again by the investigation and by the court processes. I believe that this report and the recent court cases sadly will have fuelled and reinforced their fears not assuaged them. Therefore the confidence of New Zealand women in reporting sexual offences will have to be won over time. This report today is the first step in what will be a long healing process. It will be a long process of turning around the police culture and regaining trust—in particular the trust of New Zealand women—in the police force. 
The report has confirmed what so many women have been saying anecdotally over recent years. Much of what women have said has been dismissed but this report gives proof that there was a culture of scepticism in the police’s dealing with complainants of sexual abuse; that these stereotyped attitudes may have prejudiced the police’s approach to complaints; that there was evidence that police officers turned a blind eye to sexual activity of an inappropriate nature carried out by police officers; and of course that there was a wall of silence from police officers in order to protect their colleagues. These are incredibly serious findings that really amount to an admission of a cover-up in certain parts of the police force which obviously caused huge harm to every single woman whose case was denied or covered up in this way in the past. 
I guess that it is particularly concerning when we look at the release of the report and its findings today and consider the very long history of this sort of culture in the police force. Eleven years ago in 1996 a study noted that there was “an organisational culture in the police force that was dominated by male values”. It spoke of sexual harassment discrimination “tolerance of forms of male behaviour that marginalised the contribution of women” and of degrading pastimes such as night-shift sexist videos. The question we must ask is what has happened as a result of that very revealing report. How much has changed since then and what has been done to change the male work-culture of the police? These matters are what we need to be reassured about if women are to have their faith their confidence and their trust in the police restored. 
The report also confirms that there was a sexual assault investigation policy which governed how police should handle sexual assaults and investigations into them. But it also states that as recently as March of 2005 experienced detectives were arriving at the Royal New Zealand Police College for courses and admitting that they did not even know that such a policy existed let alone what it specified. They said that the lack of implementation of this particular policy was also reflected in the fact that no attempt was made to appoint a national sexual assault coordinator until 2005—8 years after the policy’s introduction. Also the policy was supposed to be mandatory. It stated that it was a mandatory policy yet the way that it was implemented meant that compliance with it remained an aspirational target. So all of these events of the past suggest that much needs to happen for New Zealand women to be reassured that there has been a profound and real change in the police culture and for them to feel they can have the confidence and trust in the police that is essential for the police force to be effective. 
What is also of concern is that some of the women who have bared their souls to the commission have said that they feel they have been left hanging and that they feel they have been hung out to dry by the inquiry. Some of them I think were expecting that the process would bring them personal resolution reconciliation and closure. They say that they feel they have been treated with an attitude of: “ ‘thank you very much for your story you are no longer required goodbye.’ ” I think that this is a real concern. No doubt those women will be pleased with the unequivocal and generic apology made by the commissioner and they will be pleased by this report. But I think that more needs to be done so that the women who have bared their souls feel that they are able to have personal closure of their own agony over secrets that many of them have nurtured for many decades. 
I am astonished that there was no code of conduct for police officers. It is hard to believe. We are delighted that finally there will be a code of conduct for police officers. Thank you very much.