Harawira Hone: Judicial Matters Bill — First Reading 
Harawira Hone: Judicial Matters Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:649;Page:17950] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou te Whare. I was thinking about how best to open my speech on this bill and I happened to raise the subject with a good friend of mine a Mr Derek Fox the Maori Party candidate for Ikaroa-Rawhiti. He suggested a line used by Te Kooti back in the 1860s. It went something like this: “Ma te ture ano te ture e aki.” Let the law look after the law. I was so impressed with that little comment from Mr Fox that I thought I would see whether I could get a double-up. So I called up another good friend of mine Rahui Katene the Maori Party candidate for Te Tai Tonga who happens to be an excellent lawyer with very good connections right throughout the South Island and Wellington. She told me that Dame Sian Elias when she was appointed Chief Justice said: “One of the reasons I’m so optimistic about the future is because what happened at Waitangi in 1840 is so consciously founded on an expectation that justice will be achieved through law.” So given the quality of the contributions of my good friends Derek Fox and Rahui Katene I am happy to say that it is those thoughts that have helped guide our consideration of this bill about the appointment and conduct of judges. 
We take it for granted that the public should have confidence in the honesty and integrity of the judiciary and in the impartiality consistency and fairness of their decisions. Yet in the first year of the operation of the Judicial Conduct Commissioner I note that about 100 complaints were made against judges. Those complaints were of bias sexism rudeness delays incompetence inappropriate remarks and a failure to listen. Most were dismissed and none was referred to the Attorney-General for action. 
I also note the comment that although Ministers of the Crown are supposed to be accountable to Parliament judges are accountable only to the Judicial Conduct Commissioner and judicial panels for misconduct which means that it is really important that those appeal authorities are functional efficient and open to public scrutiny. So although the Maori Party supports the appointment of a Deputy Judicial Conduct Commissioner to cover absences and possible conflicts of interest for the commissioner I decided to get another view on the whole issue. While we were out door-knocking for the Maori Party in Hamilton last week—and I am happy to report to the House that the analysis of the door-knocking suggests that the Maori Party will be a shoo-in at the election—I decided to ask another good friend of mine Angeline Greensill Maori Party candidate for Hauraki-Waikato what she thought about the appointment of a Deputy Judicial Conduct Commissioner. 
She suggested that we should recommend people who have demonstrated an ability to uphold kaupapa and tikanga Maori in the justice system. She also suggested that we note Moana Jackson’s analysis in  
The 
Maori and the Criminal Justice System: a new perspective—he whaipainga hou 
 where he states: “The background and experience of judges is confined by the ethno-centrism of their own heritage and the social attitudes which they address are determined by the values of the dominant culture.” 
That report was written in 1988 so we thought we would see how things have changed over the last two decades if at all. What we found was that in 1980 Maori were being convicted twice as often as Pakeha for crimes that receive a custodial sentence and in 2006 Maori were still one-third more likely to receive a custodial sentence than Pakeha. We also found that although the total number of sentences handed down to Pakeha has remained basically unchanged since 1980 the number of sentences handed down to Maori has more than doubled from 20000 in 1980 to 42000 in 2006. 
I take this opportunity to extend my heartfelt thanks to Derek Fox Rahui Katene and Angeline Greensill for the excellent quality of their contributions to this debate and I look forward to their being able to offer that knowledge and analysis to other legislation when they join us here in this House on a more permanent basis after the election. 
Of course other factors that influence sentencing by judges are a critical variable in the judicial process hence the need for scrupulous conduct on their part. Among the issues we want to raise is the need to identify judges whose sentences are so consistently harsh that they may be seen as criminalising youngsters without sufficient consideration for their rehabilitation or judges who treat the underclass much more severely than they treat offenders from the upper class. Sometimes a judge’s conduct might not look too bad in a particular case but shows a distinct pattern and bias when considered over a longer period. I will be asking the select committee to look into whether there should be room for complaints about conduct based upon a judge’s overall record and not just on specific decisions. 
This legislation also proposes to allow the commissioner to take no further action if he or she feels it might be unjustified. Although we accept that proposal in the interests of honesty and integrity we would also expect the commissioner to ensure equality and fairness to all parties involved in a complaint. The main issue for the Maori Party is that in whatever stage of the justice system our people may be involved they get a fair efficient independent and impartial hearing and we know from the 2004 Law Commission report they are not currently getting that. Maori and Pasifika consistently tell us how hard it is to get basic information how hard it is to get a decent lawyer and how if they get one the lawyer costs too much how some judges are to be avoided like the Black Plague and how monocultural unfriendly and alienating the whole judicial system is. 
Like everybody else the Maori Party wants to see a decrease in the number of Maori arrested convicted and imprisoned through the criminal justice system. But we are also passionate about the pursuit of justice and the need for respect from the judiciary to Maori people and Maori issues. Someone once told me that if peace is not merely the absence of war but also the presence of justice then we have no peace in Aotearoa because we sure ain’t got no frickin’ justice. We do not get justice by fiddling with existing laws we get justice by reconsidering the very principles on which we base our laws the way in which we make them the way in which we enforce them and the way in which we repeal them when we realise how stupid some of them are. It is in that spirit that we will be supporting this bill at its first reading. Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker.