Kapa-Kingi MariamenoMARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI (Te Pāti Māori—Te Tai Tokerau): Madam Speaker thank you. I rise to object to the bill for these reasons. The bill amends the Legal Services Act to cut legal aid funding for section 27 reports. Funding matters. The previous speaker referred to taxpayers' money as if Māori aren't taxpayers. So I just wanted to note that and reject that idea. These reports provide sentencing judges with background information and insight into a person's background into their whānau and into any historical trauma and provide context to their lives that often can lead when there's trauma to offending. Māori are not born offenders; we're not born into it—just to make that clear.These reports give judges a full picture of the person and that statement cannot be made lightly. Why do I know that? It's because I was part of a team that used to put these together and the usefulness that the judges found and the purpose of them for whānau—that they provided not only a well-written narrative but the cultural context though these section 27 reports are not just cultural reports. To that point it's used as part of a narrative unfortunately again as another exercise to make cultural/Māori wrong. That's what the narrative creates—cultural puts Hmm those Māori are getting off lighter sentences." This is how it's discussed. How do I know? I used to work in that setting and these are the kinds of conversations that used to run regularly in court rooms unfortunately. So those points I make in my speech tonight.Crime in Aotearoa is the result of poverty and disconnection from your community and whakapapa. Whakapapa is genealogy; it is who you come from and who you are. Let's say it's this word: deculturation. I'm happy to discuss what that means with others if they don't know what that word means. It is the result of colonisation—something that this Government seems to be good with I think given for Māori on balance I think that was one of the Minister's statements recently.You cannot call tough on crime when you are insistent on being soft to poverty and blind to poverty and ignorant on critical analysis—critical cultural analysis—and out of touch with reality and worst of all indifferent to Māori indifferent to whānau indifferent to hapū indifferent to the reality. I know what whānau have to deal with with the barriers they have to contend with on a day-to-day basis of which very few will really know in reality.As part of their 100-day plan this Government has pledged to end section 27 reports which they've dubbed "cultural reports"—and I made comments to that earlier—but whatever language we're using words matter. Words like "cultural" often is slash for Māori which is I think I said before made wrong. While these reports are available to people of all backgrounds this Government's fixation on the word "culture" has created a convenient narrative.We know for a fact that when it comes to criminal justice systems the case is that Māori are some of the worst over-incarcerated people on the planet. We are more likely to be pursued arrested and charged for crimes different to non-Māori. There's a new charge in town it's called a DWB—driving while brown. The only time Māori receive any special treatment in the justice system is when we're being profiled in stores on the street in car parks in courts and in corridors. Wāhine Māori make up 64 percent of the female prison population and tāne make up 50 percent. By removing funding for section 27 reports these statistics will only be worse. Unilaterally removing funding means a greater risk of unfair and ineffective sentences a higher rate of sentence appeals and will create a situation where those who can afford to privately pay for these reports will be more advantaged—and we Māori will be disadvantaged yet again.Māori are over-represented as both victims and criminals in the system. To ignore the systemic deprivation results in colonisation in the sentencing process is just another breach of article 1 and 2."