Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): I am pleased to speak in the third reading of this Statutes Repeal Bill. Just off the bat I want to take issue with Mr O'Rourke. I am really disappointed but not surprised that New Zealand First is supporting the repeal of the Sentencing Council Act. To hear Mr O'Rourke say that there was no need for the sentencing council and that there are no issues around inconsistency in sentencing in our justice system—I am absolutely appalled at that. One needs only to look at the prison population in Aotearoa New Zealand—50 percent of the prison population are young Māori men and yet we make up only 15 percent of the total population.Denis O'Rourke: That doesn't mean anything. RINO TIRIKATENE: It does—it means plenty.Let us take a case in point—let us look at the case of Teina Pora a young 16-year-old at the time. He spent 22 years in prison—wrongfully in prison—because of systemic failures within the police system within their investigation and within the court system. After two failed trials we had to go all the way to the Privy Council to get the admissibility of his foetal alcohol syndrome. They had to go to all those lengths through some good Samaritan people to finally get justice for that young man. Even then the Government was reluctant to give adequate compensation for 22 years of wrongful imprisonment. And we say there is no problem with the consistency of sentencing in our country! I think that is appalling but it does not surprise me because there is institutional racism among our institutions in society. Of course for someone like Mr O'Rourke that is invisible to him. He does not see it because he is a typical Pākehā white male. They do not see the institutional racism that Māori have to deal with each and every day. I am disgusted but I am not surprised at the approach of New Zealand First in relation to that. If I may this bill—yes it is a spring-cleaning exercise. Quite frankly it is neither here nor there really in terms of this bill. I doubt whether folks out there are kept awake at night wondering about whether the Post Office Act Repeal Act is still in force or not. I doubt whether folks are wondering about the numerous finance Acts or the New Zealand wheat Act or whatever other Acts that we are repealing here because they are of no effect at all. They are just sitting on our books. They do not mean anything. No one is actually going to look them up because there is no need to. So for all intents and purposes many of these Acts are of no purpose whatsoever. Nevertheless the Government is thinking it is that important—to improve the quality of our legislation I guess it wants to do a bit of a culling exercise so here we are. We are supporting this bill albeit reluctantly myself at this final stage because yes we do need to clean up the statute book. Certainly this bill does that; however again it is a moot point. I guess we will leave it up to second year law classes and whoever takes an interest in what the effect is of repealing Acts that are amendment Acts or earlier repeal Acts—and then there are the ones that repeal everything through a self-destruct clause. So yes we are going to make all these Acts disappear. It may make the Government feel good but really I am really disappointed that this Government is repealing the Sentencing Council Act. I have stated my reasons for that.The irony is that there was an opportunity here for the Government to repeal a very archaic piece of legislation in respect of the provision of blasphemy in the Crimes Act. And what do we hear? We hear the Government members say: Oh we need more time. We need more time to look at this issue and we're going to put it in with an amendment to the Crimes Act. And so we can give proper consideration to that." Well where is the consideration for the Sentencing Council Act? Where is the consideration from this Government on the inequities and on the disproportionate sentencing of Māori in our justice system? There is not any. That is right—they are repealing an important piece of legislation which could have been beneficial but this Government's policy was totally against it. It has put no effort into implementing it and now it just wants to strike it off the statute book.And all the while more young Māori men will be filling up our prisons. How do we know that? Because this Government is building a brand new $1 billion prison to take into account the projections of an increased prison population. It is putting $1 billion into that when it should actually be addressing the real issues. It could have been doing that through supporting something like a sentencing council. But oh no it wants to build more prisons because it wants to fill these new prisons up again with more young Māori men. It is a disgrace. But it shows what this Government is really all about.I am glad that my colleague from Tai Tokerau Kelvin Davis busted one of those Serco prisons. That is what the Government wants; it wants to have profit-generating prisons. It is absolutely abhorrent that all this Government cares about is building more prisons putting in more private operators trying to lock up more young brown men. Hence it is adding greater force to that through the passage of this legislation today.I am disappointed in this legislation. I think it is two-faced of the Government members to say they want more time to look at blasphemy but are not prepared to look at the merits of a sentencing council or an equivalent body. So I am disappointed in that aspect but I know that there is some spring-cleaning to be done and I am sure the 135-odd other pieces of legislation that are about to be expunged from history will not be missed. I commend this bill to the House."