Harawira Hone: Judicature Amendment Bill (No 3) — In Committee 
Harawira Hone: Judicature Amendment Bill (No 3) — In Committee 
[Volume:630;Page:2244] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora tatou. I am reading a book at the moment that is about a guy who gets convicted in the United States and about the whole process of his going through to face the death penalty. The interesting thing about the process is that it is more about the process of law than it is about the individual who is being prosecuted before the law. That is why I referred to one of the previous bills the Legal Services Amendment Bill (No 2) as being the “Legal Services (Grease the Machine) Bill” and this bill is the “Judicature (Grease the Machine) Bill”. Again the Courts and Criminal Matters Bill is very similar because just as that bill is all about improving the effectiveness of fines-gathering this Judicature Amendment Bill (No 3) is about alleviating workload pressure on the courts getting more judges and basically greasing the machine to get more and more people through the system. 
I tell folks we need to realise that the system is all full up. We cannot just keep on making it easier to put more and more people through the system and we cannot talk about getting tough on them or doing what with them. This side of the Chamber cannot stick them in jail because that side of the Chamber is planning to send them home for weekends. Sooner or later we have to deal with the fundamental problems that this nation faces and I am sorry to say that more judges will not fix the problem. 
I also note that one of the Maori Party’s concerns about the judicature is that although members are talking about having more judges and alleviating the workload pressure for the Court of Appeal etc. we are not doing anything to put pressure on those who are interfering politically in the rights of judges. I refer there to the Deputy Prime Minister in his role as Attorney-General last year when he unnecessarily criticised a couple of the judges of the Maori Land Court. Then he talked about an inquiry into the process yet pulled the plug on the inquiry a little later on. But the word was out there that while Parliament was talking about creating more judges and putting more people into work to do that kind of activity the Government still reserved the right to attack those judges on the one hand and on the other to criticise members on the other side of the Chamber should they dare to mention a judge. So all those issues have yet to be tidied up. 
In terms of having videos I am opposed because the video thing is just a start. I say it tonight because I am absolutely convinced that further on down the track we will find ourselves going the way of the book I am reading where the process becomes more important than the person. Consequently we will have a situation where lawyers having access to the video—that is the judge the prosecutor and the defence attorney—will be more in sync with one another over a video whether or not they have someone to deal with or a defendant on hand. So while I hear Mr Finlayson’s korero about the video being basic pre-trial kind of stuff which is what is proposed at the moment I am concerned because I know that the video thing is part of that “grease the machine” thinking that the Government seems to have in terms of alleviating workload improving effectiveness etc. It is becoming more and more about the importance of the process and less and less about the importance of the person. 
The reason the Maori Party opposes this bill—probably at 4 to 116—is that it does not reflect the fact that for many thousands of Maori and Pacific Islanders more judges will not actually mean more justice and neither will easing the workload pressure on the Court of Appeal allowing appeals to the Supreme Court or giving increased access to the Supreme Court for the very simple reason that we Polynesian folks simply do not have the financial capability to engage the experienced high-cost lawyers we cannot get from legal aid and we cannot get normally to ensure that we can actually have access to justice.