Turei Metiria: Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Turei Metiria: Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons) Amendment Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:8123. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 The first thing I say given the contribution we have just heard is that I make no apology for believing that profiteering from systemic racism is a bad thing. Making a profit is not necessarily a bad thing but making a profit from systemic racism is bad and this Committee should not be supporting any kind of legislation that does that. 
I will address some of the issues raised by the Associate Minister of Corrections because I thought he made a really important contribution given the argument that this legislation is supposed to be good for Maori and given the fact that the Maori Party is supporting it. The process of colonisation that has impacted on the Maori communities in this country is felt nowhere more obviously than in the oldest construction of the colonial Government which is the criminal legal system and penal policy. They are the oldest constructions of the colonial State. The results of the colonisation process and the systemic racism that has arisen out of that process are clear. More than 50 percent of the prison population is Maori and more than 50 percent of the female prison population is Maori. Wahine Maori are in jail in appalling numbers. The systemic bias in the system leads to Maori being more likely to be stopped searched arrested convicted and jailed than their Pakeha counterparts. Even those involved with the Youth Court have said that rangatahi Maori—young Maori—are more likely to face the Youth Court. 
Hon Member 
: The chair of the Law and Order Committee is shaking her head at what you’re saying. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: It is unbelievable that National cannot face the facts of the matter. Rangatahi Maori are more likely to face the Youth Court even though their offences are generally of less seriousness than the offences committed by their Pakeha counterparts. We see the evidence in the legal system everywhere and this is the system in which our whanau exist. 
I agreed with the Associate Minister of Corrections when he talked about the different kinds of options for dealing with Maori imprisonment and Maori rehabilitation. Habilitation centres are absolutely the way to go; not the continual building of prisons—habilitation centres that are whanau focused and deal with systemic issues as well as taking a whole whanau approach. The Maori focus units where they have been successful have done really well. The systemic problems within the Department of Corrections have made that more difficult but the example that the Maori units provide is fantastic. 
We absolutely agree with Maori involvement in the management of prisons. The only way to deal with the Maori prison population and to ensure that there is real rehabilitation from a tikanga point of view is by having Maori involved in the management of prisons and having kaumatua in the prisons. We agree with that completely. I do not agree with how we then get to the totally relaxed view that somehow the market will be able to provide those things where the Public Service has failed. On what basis can we say that the evidence is there that the market will provide that when the public system has failed? Jane Kelsey has a really good quote in her submission. She said that in the assumption that both market forces and our system of justice are colour-blind Maori are invisible. That is the implication of assuming with no evidence—not a skerrick of evidence—that the private sector and market forces will be able to provide these kinds of services for Maori and for the Maori management of prisons. 
Certainly nothing—not a thing—in the Corrections (Contract Management of Prisons) Amendment Bill will enable what the Associate Minister of Corrections was talking about to happen. There is no requirement for any kind of joint venture with any kind of iwi organisation. There is no Treaty clause in the legislation. There is no requirement for Maori to be part of the staffing of those prisons even though we know that more than 50 percent of the inmates will be Maori. There is no requirement for cultural training of the staff who will be in that prison. We heard evidence from the staff of the Auckland Central Remand Prison that they bring over from Australia staff who have no concept of how to deal with Maori prisoners or of the tikanga issues involved. But the bill does not say anything about requiring cultural training. There is no requirement in the legislation for tikanga Maori programmes to be managed within the prison. The Minister has talked in the past about that being part of the contract but where is the guarantee?