Mark Ron: Urgent Debates — Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct—Report 
Mark Ron: Urgent Debates — Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct—Report 
[Volume:638;Page:8549] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise to contribute to this debate on behalf of New Zealand First and I want to start by reading these words to the House: 
“The New Zealand public have a ‘holier than thou’ attitude to Australia when it comes to policing and while there may have been some justification for this in the past it is certainly not the case now. 
At least the Australians have ordered commissions to look into their various police services. Some of them can now move on. 
New Zealand has steadfastly refused to do so apart from the Compton inquiry earlier this century when a Police Commissioner was using police constables to work for him personally. Instead they have just talked about it: ‘Isn’t it awful isn’t that dreadful isn’t this wicked …’ That seems to be the way of New Zealanders and their media. 
Does the whole common structure need to be reviewed? Many experts would say at least one tier of that structure should be removed. 
Police I have spoken to believe that a massive restructuring of the New Zealand Police Service is long overdue with the main reform aim being to have less police bureaucracy. 
In New Zealand senior police officers are not used to public scrutiny and in fact resent it. To be fair to them however neither are politicians the judiciary the legal profession or public servants. 
As the New Zealand police have made an ‘art form’ out of writing off complaints over the years the Police Complaints Authority is a toothless tiger. 
It is hoped this book will cause the public to think more about the corruption and coverups in our society and then hopefully do something about it when they encounter it. 
Surely it’s time for some professionalism at the top? Not just in the police but across the board. 
While this book is often critical it does offer some solutions based on twenty years’ experience in the police and a further twelve years studying the Australasian legal system and police departments around the world.” 
This was written by Tom Lewis in January 1998 in the introduction to his book  
Coverups 
 & Copouts 
 which I hold in my hand. It is interesting that as far back as 1998 some long-serving police officers were expressing their concern about practices in the police force and some deficiencies within the public service—deficiencies that were not giving the public the confidence they needed that all was well within our police force. Tom goes on to talk about other Government departments as well but we are talking specifically about the police force as did the bulk of his book. 
New Zealand First thinks that warts and all as bad as it is and as horrible as the reading in this report will be for most New Zealanders this is a very good day. It is a good day for democracy a good day for the public service and a good day for the police force because we have to hand the long-awaited  
Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct 
 produced for us by Dame Margaret Bazley. I also take the opportunity to say that it is a good thing that Margaret Bazley is a Dame because on the basis of this report New Zealand First says she certainly deserves such a title. Unfortunately in the future public servants who serve us as well as she has will not have the privilege of being accorded that title because the Government has removed such systems of recognition from the statute. 
The report is not good reading for New Zealanders and is not good reading for the police force. It is encouraging that Dame Margaret Bazley points out that the number of incidents of police misconduct over the years—although as Mr Power pointed out she found 313 complaints of sexual assault against 222 officers and 141 of those she said contained sufficient evidence for which criminal charges could have been laid—was “relatively rare across the force”. She goes on to say that the public could have confidence in the calibre of police investigations into allegations of sexual assault by police officers “in more recent times”. 
It is no secret and it is widely accepted and known that certain sectors in the communities’ minority groups in this country have for years expressed concern about how they have been treated by the police. It is regrettable sad and a blight on our history—on our record—that one of those groups should be New Zealand women and that they should have been treated so badly by a few officers in the police force and also that senior officers who were in a position to have done something in those times did not. Had they simply done one thing—that is their duty which is something they took an oath on and swore to uphold—then we would not be reading the sordid tales we are reading in this report. 
 New Zealand First takes some pride in the fact that it has played a major role in increasing the size of New Zealand’s police force and thereby its diversity which is encouraging. We are also encouraged by the increasing number of women who are joining the force. From that will come—it has already come—a change in the culture a change in the attitudes and a change in the way the police operate today and more important will operate in the future. I am reminded of the words of a proverb that has often been said in the past: “All it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.” Sadly this report tells us that for a very long time good people who could have done something did nothing. That is in the past and we should not just consign it to history and just say: “Well we’ve dealt with it. Let’s move on.”; it is useful henceforth for us to remind ourselves about our history and our past so that we may do better and serve the citizens of this nation better. 
New Zealand First has long championed for this country a stronger police force tougher laws for transgressors and victims’ rights and we have championed an increase in the budget for the New Zealand Police. We have championed an increase in the numbers of police officers on the beat. But we also stand by the view that we want and demand an increase in the quality and standards demonstrated by our policemen and policewomen who actually do their duty for us on the streets. This will come only with the code of conduct. 
The announcement that the code of conduct is to be part of the review is welcomed but let us not underestimate the difficulty of that. Here are a couple of points to ponder. New Zealand has changed as the Minister said. We would have thought it unacceptable that a police officer could take up after-hours work as a prostitute and that that police officer be allowed to continue in the job. There will be challenges now because prostitution is a legitimate form of employment in this country. That is something this Parliament has done. The challenges now for the police as to what the code of conduct will look like should not be underestimated. We have introduced a range of standards that other New Zealanders will challenge to this very day. 
I also put on record here today that the Police Complaints Authority now needs to be absolutely 100 percent independent. New Zealand First asks now that the Minister change the legislation he has drafted to make the Police Complaints Authority an Office of Parliament to make the commissioner for the Police Complaints Authority a commissioner’s appointment and to put that office under the New Zealand Parliament and under the Officers of Parliament Committee which is chaired by the Speaker has all parties represented on it receives totally independent funding is not in any way subordinate to the Ministry of Justice or the police and is seen to be totally and absolutely independent of those bodies. This report now makes it absolutely imperative. 
We have a good person in Justice Goddard. We have faith and confidence that she can do the work that has to be done. But New Zealand First is now saying that we should go one step further. Let us give the Police Complaints Authority absolute and total autonomy to investigate without fear or favour any allegations of this type that are ever brought before it again and let us make sure that it is resourced so that it can conduct those investigations from a first principles starting point. No more should it be seen to be party or subordinate to the police or the Ministry of Justice in any way shape or form.