Flavell Te Ururoa: Justices of the Peace Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Justices of the Peace Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:638;Page:8646] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
Tena koe Madam Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou e koreroneiinga take iteneirangitonunei. 
[ 
Greetings to you Madam Assistant Speaker and to us involved in this present debate today 
]. 
Yesterday this Parliament was shell-shocked by the release of a report which members variously described as recording a blot on the law and order landscape the undermining of one of our key pillars of society and a red flag day that signalled the urgent need to restore and rehabilitate the nature of the justice system in Aotearoa. We learnt about disgraceful sexual conduct and we learnt about a wall of silence that protected police officers from complaints laid against them. At the end of the day the Government promised a major overhaul of the policing system. But of course the operation of an effective justice system is not just the responsibility of NgaPirihimana o Aotearoa. The attainment of due access to justice is a worthy goal that we can all play a part in achieving. 
So we come to this Justices of the Peace Amendment Bill which targets as Mr Donnelly has said the training discipline and retirement of justices of the peace. We ask the question of how the appointments and ongoing professional development of JPs serve to restore community vitality. I remind the House that justices of the peace have particular and unique skills that lead them well into taking up leadership positions at a community and national level. I was thinking about some of the outstanding leaders in for example my area who have taken up the role of JP. I talk of Karauria and HanahiraAnaru of Ohinemutu in Rotorua both appointed as JPs in the 1940s; MonitaDelamere Ringatu leader from Kawerau; Henry Taiporutu Te Mapu-o-te-Rangi Mitchell NgatiPikiao leader; PirimiTahiwi of Ngati Whakaue and Ngati Raukawa and Rachel Ngeungeu Te Irirangi Zister a Ngai Tai and NgatiPaoa woman. 
There is also an amazingly rich range of tangata whenua talent who have served as JPs across the nation including some distinguished former members of Parliament including ErueraTirikatene Ben Couch and the local politician Sir Ralph Love. MauiPomare was the first Maori president of the Royal Federation of New Zealand Justices Associations in 1989. A former Maori language commissioner Sir KingiIhaka Ngati Hine leader Te RiriKawiti and Ngapuhi leader Hone Heke Rankin were JPs just to name a few. 
So there is no denying that the position of justice of the peace attracts some of our finest individuals—people who are well able to carry out the legal obligations and responsibilities appropriate to public office. These are outstanding members of our community—persons respected for their common sense good sense character and integrity. 
So the question is how this extremely able pool of people can be used to restore peace enhance justice and improve well-being across our communities. Well the Maori Party is always looking for new ideas that can be useful for the nation to adopt and we have found just a couple of concepts that we want to share in the context of the Justices of the Peace Amendment Bill. Although this bill is specifically focused on training discipline and retirement some aspects come within the framework of professional development. We must make explicit the close connection between professionalism and cultural competency and I will draw on a couple of international examples to show how this can be done. 
We make these suggestions with some trepidation I might say as we are aware that new ideas and the application of those ideas are a bit of a danger to this Government of the superficial. Its fear of moving from a narrow ethnocentric view of the nation was demonstrated last night when the rarely used mechanism of financial veto was called on to ensure that any serious attempts to give substance to Treaty education and immigration would not occur. Where was the Maori Labour caucus while the Treaty was being voted on or at least vetoed? Unfortunately it was not here. But we remain eternally optimistic and today is a new day. We hope that the ideas we put forward may be useful in enhancing the service provided by justices of the peace. 
I say to the Minister Clayton Cosgrove that in Canada the criminal justice system has since 2000 implemented a range of aboriginal justice strategies across the country. These include an increased number of appointments of aboriginal justices of the peace the establishment of aboriginal justice of the peace courts under the Indian Act the cross-cultural education of non-aboriginal workers and the incorporation of aboriginal processes such as elder panels and sentencing circles. 
What would these native justices of the peace do? Before I talk about this I apologise to the tribal nations mentioned for any mispronunciation. I will have a go. The Nunavut Court of Justice recognises that the majority of Nunavut are Inuit and speak Inuktitut as their mother tongue in an initiative called the circuit court. The circuit court travels to 85 percent of the communities across the territory holding court in community halls school gyms and local venues. In these courts elders and justices of the peace sit with the judge in the courtroom and are given the opportunity to speak with the accused prior to the passing of sentence. In Ontario aboriginal judicial decision makers have been recruited trained appointed and supported by the Attorney-General. There are currently 21 active native justices of the peace who take part in local legal education and mock trials and in bearing the first face of the judicial system to the public. 
Across the Tasman indigenous sentencing in circle courts is a key component of justice system procedures including the Nunga and Aboriginal courts of South Australia the Koori Courts in Victoria the Murri and Rockhampton courts in Queensland and circle sentencing in New South Wales. Across these developments Aboriginal justice officers may take an active role in assisting the prosecutor offender and defence counsel to devise an appropriate sentence plan or they may not speak at all during the hearing but remain active behind the scenes. 
Indigenous courts circles and other justice practices are all examples of initiatives that have been developed by and alongside indigenous communities for the benefit of the whole community. In particular the indigenous community itself becomes influential in helping to make the new justice practices meaningful and effective in their communities. So although we here in Aotearoa are way ahead of some other countries in indigenous issues we fall behind so often for some reason or other. We seem to be scared to give Maori tangata whenua a shot at using their own systems to achieve positive outcomes. It would be awesome I think if we could follow the lead of our indigenous brothers and sisters from overseas. 
In particular a key competency across all of these practices is that of improved communication between the offender the justice of the peace and other relevant people. The skills required are about learning about the offender learning about the offence and then developing an appropriate response. The duties we expect our justices of the peace in Aotearoa to take up include witnessing documents taking declarations certifying copies issuing search warrants hearing summary offences hearing bail applications and hearing requests for remand. Duties also include presiding over preliminary hearings and conducting traffic courts. These are all duties and responsibilities where excellent communication skills sensitivity and understanding of indigenous knowledge and cultural protocols and creativity could help to make a major difference in the movement toward a more peaceful community. 
I have referred to individual Maori leaders and to international indigenous initiatives in order to assist the Minister in considering new approaches to supporting JPs in performing their key functions. I am sure that Dr Sharples along with his other JP peers in this House Mark Blumsky yourself Madam Assistant Speaker possibly Mr Hawkins— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Martin Gallagher. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
:—no not any more—and Lindsay Tisch at least would also greatly appreciate an opportunity to assist the Minister with their feedback about the current role standing and requirements of justices of the peace. 
The important thing is that we do not simply sit still and automatically assume that the fact that JPs are in a position of trust would suggest that such confidence is warranted. We know better than that following the evidence from yesterday’s damning police report. We believe that this nation is at a critical point in the crossroads—in the interface between the criminal justice sector and the community. We can either ignore the community at our peril or we can work together in restoring a new sense of public confidence in the key justice agencies. The Maori Party has suggested throughout the course of this bill that training for justices of the peace might also include understanding of cultural safety education around Te Tiriti o Waitangi and some basic information on tikanga te reo Maori and particularly the pronunciation of people’s names. 
We have concluded our comments on this third reading by also drawing on our indigenous counterparts as a way of providing us with other models that could be used to improve the JP service—to uphold accountability and cultural safety—and to move the nation forward towards achieving a new standard of justice. Kia ora tatou.