Turia Tariana: Urgent Debates — Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct—Report 
Turia Tariana: Urgent Debates — Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct—Report 
[Volume:638;Page:8551] 
TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
Tena koe. Tenatatou te Whare. The UMR Research report released last month described a common goal for police to be ethical professional well respected and effective. Yet 3 hours ago a report was released that upheld against police 141 complaints of sexual assault between 1979 and 2005 that demonstrated sufficient evidence for criminal charges or disciplinary action. It is a report that barely skims the surface of the traumatic impact and devastation that sexual violence leaves in its wake. 
This nation has been battered by the storms of violence for far too long. Sexual violence costs the economy approximately $1.2 billion per year. But its cost in leaving women and families annihilated by the fear the memories and the pain of assault cannot be quantified. Today we must as politicians restore faith in the police so that our women can be reassured and have faith that justice will be done. This report sends that message. We know that sexual violence is significantly under-reported in New Zealand. Now we have it in black and white—the proof of police officers turning a blind eye to inappropriate sexual behaviour. The report describes incident upon incident of disgraceful conduct. 
First and foremost as a nation we must be bold enough to face the epidemic of sexual violence we are seeing evidence of in the policing sector that also manifests itself across other areas of our community. We absolutely must front up and dispel any illusion that violence of any kind is normal and acceptable. Our first responsibility is to provide leadership in our own whanau hapu and iwi to take responsibility to live without violence. Today the opportunity is provided by the very public high-profile review of the police to send a message that we are a nation that refuses to shirk away from the disgraceful conduct and the terror of sexual assault that some members of our police force have inflicted upon others. 
The Maori Party commends the work of Dame Margaret Bazley and the commitment of the commission in reviewing all relevant investigation files on complaints of alleged sexual assault by police or police associates since January 1979. This report today is just another link in a chain of dysfunction and disarray that has been associated with the New Zealand Police. We have had a crisis with 111 calls with too many emergency calls unanswered and New Zealanders being left in the lurch. We have heard former Police Commissioner Rob Robinson detail the filth that was clogging up the capacity of the police computers—emails images and movie clips of a pornographic nature. There have been other crises of confidence with the police system as we witnessed in the report of Maori perceptions of police which stated that simply being Maori was a sufficient cause for suspicion by the police. The studies revealed that Maori respondents believed that police viewed Maori essentially as criminal. I repeat that simply being Maori was a sufficient cause for suspicion. It is not a new story. 
I looked today at another report about the police  
The 
Maori 
 and the Criminal Justice System: a new perspective—he whaipainga hou 
. In that report Moana Jackson describes a level of disillusionment that has grave portents for Maori and police relations. He drew on analysis from the Waitangi Tribunal which stated: “When one significant section of the community burns with a sense of injustice the rest of the community cannot safely pretend that there is no reason for their discontent. That is a recipe for social unrest …”. 
The challenge before this House today is what we do with the burning sense of injustice that New Zealand citizens are experiencing today as they have over the last few months and indeed decades. We do not want a police system whereby Maori believe they will be ignored or unfairly targeted for apprehension arrest and prosecution. We want to see cultural competence included in police employment contracts. It was former Police Commissioner Peter Doone who argued in the year 2000 that we must look for a fundamentally different approach required to break the cycle in which many police and Maori hold negative perceptions of each other. I think of our young women who have been sexually abused and have ended up in institutions in this country full of anger and outrage at what has happened to them and not able to trust the police or the State systems to provide them with protection. They are women who are criminalised by their anger and outrage and by the trauma of sexual abuse that has never been addressed. 
 Where have we got to when those whom we turn to for help are instead condoning or turning a blind eye to sexual activity of an inappropriate nature? Where have we got to if the evidence of assault is greeted with a wall of silence from colleagues protecting those officers complained about? What sort of police system has emerged for complainants to become the subject of negative stereotypes and to be treated with what the report describes as a culture of scepticism? 
The Maori Party was pleased to see the unreserved apology from Commissioner of Police Howard Broad—his genuine remorse that families and friends have suffered from such hurt and harm. We appreciated the statement from the Police Association that it supported the need for a code of conduct for the police. We are even more pleased to learn of the Prime Minister’s immediate response that the Government is promising to implement all of the 60 recommendations made by the commission of inquiry. 
The recommendations are extremely full and comprehensive detailing examples of training and discipline reaction and recommending a code of conduct for police. The report gives us a new start an opportunity to strip away the sapwood and start again. The first recommendation says it all. It is what one would have thought to be a standard—indeed an essential policy—for any business to operate by. It is: “New Zealand Police should develop standards policies and guidelines on inappropriate sexual conduct towards and the forming of sexual relationships with members of the public. These should be incorporated into all codes of conduct and relevant policy …”. But how much hope can we expect from a response from police made shortly after the report was released which states: “The report does not point to systemic failings with police policy procedures standards training or behaviour.” 
This report is totally about systemic failures of policy procedures standards training and behaviour. How much more must the public of New Zealand be exposed to before failings are recognised and something done? Then again I was absolutely appalled that the President of the Police Association Greg O’Connor on today of all days could come out with a statement that says he hopes police can get on with the job now and move on from “the distractions which have occurred over the last few years”. Sexual assault is not a distraction. One hundred and forty-one upheld complaints are not a distraction. 
We welcome the call from the report for a culture to be created where people are willing to stand up and challenge unethical or criminal behaviour. As the report states: “Cases where misconduct went unchallenged for months or years undoubtedly had a dampening effect on the morale of female and male officers.” We must do better. 
Recommendation 57 suggests that police districts should establish groups of community representatives who meet regularly to provide comment and feedback on police service delivery and policing issues throughout the district. Perhaps this is where our greatest hope can lie—hope that our communities are heard that longstanding concerns are registered and addressed and that failings are identified and successes are shared. We must today make a mark in the sand so that never again will we see such deplorable actions and disgraceful behaviour carried out by the police of this land—as we see in this report. And in this respect the Maori Party welcomes this report—we also know that we are lucky that we have a Minister of Police who will make sure that all of those recommendations in the report will be carried out. Tena koutou.