Flavell Te Ururoa: Appointments — Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Police Complaints Authority 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Appointments — Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Police Complaints Authority 
[Volume:636;Page:6960] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Madam Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa i tenei ahiahi. I rise today to talk to Government motions Nos 3 and 4 driven by the constant call of Maori that we the Maori Party identify track and articulate the markings of progress in this Parliament. 
It is a call that this Parliament has borne witness to over centuries. Indeed at the time of the centennial in 1940 the MP for Stratford apparently stood up in this House and declared that it was “an opportunity to celebrate 100 years of progress in this wonderful Dominion one which has never been out-shone in any other country indeed a real Pacific haven away from the troubles of an older world”. That is what he said. 
That was the prevailing view until Sir Apirana Ngata came along and he got up in this House and shared his view of evidence of Maori progress. He said: “I do not know any year the Maori people have approached with so much misgiving as this centennial year. In retrospect what does the Maori see? Lands gone the power of chiefs humbled in the dust Maori culture scattered and broken.” As we move towards the bicentennial in 2040 now is the opportunity to really focus on whether genuine progress for Aotearoa includes Maori within its frame. 
The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment may be the one step—a very important step—in achieving that progress. I stand today to acknowledge the outstanding contribution that Dr Morgan Williams has made to this nation in his role as the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. I have never met the gentleman but I understand he is someone who has valued the importance of integrity independent opinion and transformation. I am told that in fulfilling his functions as guardian as advocate as auditor as information provider and as adviser he has taken seriously the need to focus absolutely on the progress we are achieving in meeting our responsibilities to care for and nurture the environment. 
In that tangata whenua have greatly valued the vision we share with Dr Williams of providing for the land we want our children to inherit. Tangata whenua believe that if we care for nurture and respect the environment and if we collectively take responsibility for Aotearoa then our natural resources will be healthy safe and intact for everyone. So in this light the work that Dr Williams has led in developing the genuine progress indicator has been welcomed by us the Maori Party. We appreciate the way the genuine progress indicator inserts the economic contributions of household and volunteer workers by adding to one side of the ledger but subtracting other factors such as crime pollution and racism from the other end. We believe that this indicator can provide us with a far more comprehensive measure of wellness than conventional indicators. 
That will be the context in which this House welcomes Dr Janice Claire Wright as the new Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Dr Wright is charged with the honour and the serious responsibility of assessing the impact that humanity has had on the earth’s ability to sustain life. Tangata whenua attribute huge value to such a role. As whanau hapu and iwi we consider our responsibilities as tangata kaitiaki very seriously and we know they require that we take whatever measures are necessary to ensure the well-being and future good health of the environment. So in this light the Maori Party is delighted with the appointment of Dr Wright a person who describes her skills as including the capacity to be an inspiring leader who sets the pace for change. She is politically astute and able to work at all levels of Government. 
The Maori Party will be contacting her to bring her up to speed with the proposal we have tabled in this House for an urgent cross-party parliamentary commission to look at reducing Government personal and business dependence on oil. An urgent commission would indicate that we are taking the oil crisis seriously and that we would work together as a nation in a collaborative approach to set out a time line for action. Now that would be real progress. 
The other appointment being announced today is the recommendation for the Hon Justice Goddard to be appointed as the Police Complaints Authority a notable first for this High Court Judge. Although again I do not know this identity I note that the Hon Justice Goddard is not unused to being first. She is after all one of two women first to be appointed a Queen’s Counsel—along with Chief Justice the Hon Dame Sian Elias—and the first Maori woman to be appointed a Justice of the High Court. We the Maori Party warmly congratulate her on this auspicious appointment. 
We also want to take this opportunity with our eyes firmly focused on genuine progress to share some of our thoughts around the proper functioning and management of the Police Complaints Authority. The Maori Party has been disappointed that this Parliament failed in 2000 to take up the recommendation from Sir Rodney Gallen that the authority should no longer be a Crown entity but an Officer of Parliament with the independence of the Ombudsman. 
The notion of independence has been a concept that Maori have raised concerns about consistently over the last decade. The report entitled  
Maori Perceptions of the Police 
 reports a strong perception by Maori that “… the Police Complaints Authority would be self-protecting and biased in favour of the police should Maori bring a complaint against the institution or individuals within it.” The report describes the views of Maori participants who felt there was little point in complaining about these practices as they did not see the Police Complaints Authority as being independent from the police. Indeed a frequent perception expressed was that simply being Maori was sufficient cause for suspicion by the police. The document  
Maori Perceptions of the Police 
 recommended that another process for hearing Maori grievances should be undertaken immediately. It is the process that Sir Rodney Gallen recognised in his suggestion that there should be provision for a Maori member to be appointed to the authority—a recommendation that the Government of the day neglected to implement. 
We cannot bury our heads in the sand to the very real concerns of bias that have been presented by whanau hapu and iwi in the context of the nature of an authority to address complaints made by Maori against the police. So in the interests of being helpful the Maori Party comes forward in speaking to this motion with two particularly good proposals for consideration by the Hon Justice Goddard. 
The first proposal is the restructuring of the Police Complaints Authority as a truly independent body resourced to undertake substantive investigations as well as its current policy inquiries. The heart of the problem has been that the Police Complaints Authority has relied a bit too much on police officers for the authority’s investigatory capacity and suspicion about police investigating complaints about their colleagues has lingered. The previous Minister of Justice the Hon Phil Goff when releasing the review of the Police Complaints Authority confirmed this when he stated: “There is a strong public view that police investigation of complaints against themselves is neither independent nor appropriate. It is critical that there is full public confidence that such investigations are independent.” Although the Independent Police Complaints Authority Amendment Bill was passed in recognition of the need for an impartial and independent watchdog on policing matters it would be fair to say that in some communities considerable angst is still raised. 
The second suggestion we bring is to consider the establishment of an autonomous Maori investigative branch as part of the new Police Complaints Authority to review Maori complaints against and Maori relationships with the police. The ongoing interest of the public to have the decisions of the authority reviewed the consistent questions around impartiality and the drive for autonomy are all vital issues that require further discussion. 
We welcome the Hon Justice Goddard to this very stimulating area of policy discussion and we the Maori Party look forward to joining with both her and Dr Wright in working together in the pursuit of genuine progress for Aotearoa. Kia ora tatou.