Flavell Te Ururoa: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFlavell Te Ururoa: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 31 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12145. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TE URUROA FLAVELL (Co-Leader—Māori Party):Tēnākoe Mr Chair.Tēnātātou katoa. The report of the Law and Order Committee took me by surprise from the opening statements of the Minister of Police. Minister Tolley talking about the aspect of visible policing had this to say: “public confidence has never been higher. So public confidence and trust in the police is the best it’s been.” Unfortunately for Minister Tolley someone in the department forgot to point out to her the recent research released on the New Zealand Police website published just 2 months ago in May 2013. The study in questionBuilding Diversity  was undertaken to explore factors that influenceMāori to apply for and join the New Zealand Police. The researchers NanWehipeihana Elizabeth Fisher KellieSpee andKatarainaPīpī put forth evidence that utterly challenges the basis of MinisterTolley’s hope for public confidence.Let me share some of the comments in the study that reveal poor perceptions of the police withinMāori communities and a lack of trust and confidence in the police in policing and therefore in having a job with the police. People who were going to be recruited and iwi liaison officers at the time both talked in particular around theTūhoeoperations. One recruit said this: “You’d want to haveMāori Police officers on the ground right in there but then I wonder if we could influence the way things were done. Not sure we could have a say or be heard. Think we might just get swept away beneath Police procedure?”. That was one recruit. An iwi liaison officer had this to say: “The perception of Police by our people was not helped by Operation 8—theTuhoe incident. This cast a negative light on Police”. Another iwi liaison officer said this: “There’s a lack of trust and confidence in what is essentially a Pakeha organisation”. So it is no surprise that theMāori Party comes to this debate extremely keen to see how the ongoing issues of a lack ofMāori confidence in police are dealt with in the context of this estimates bill.Just to remind those who may well have forgotten last month the Independent Police Conduct Authority report found that in some areas police acted “unlawfully unjustifiably and unreasonably” during the raids of 2007. The Independent Police Conduct Authority judge David Carruthers said in the report that the detention of the occupants at five properties of 41 properties raided was “unlawful and unreasonable”. Police were also criticised for the unnecessary stopping and searching of vehicles and taking 66 photos of drivers and passengers including children. It left some people feeling “degraded and intimidated”. Just a month ago I raised these issues in the House speaking about the trauma of many people who were raided which had still not actually been heard. I then went to theMāori Affairs Committee and asked its members to consider the opportunity to listen to the voices of those affected by Operation Eight to commission an inquiry into the impact that Operation Eight had onRuātoki andTāneatua residents—no cigar no cigar. Neither National nor Labour would agree.So now here we have an opportunity to expose the New Zealand Police to the scrutiny of the public to see how they are dealing with the longstanding issues of injustice and inequality. So what does the Law and Order Committee report tell us? Three things. Firstly it describes the Australian Police recruiting New Zealand officers in 2012-13. Secondly it reports with great excitement about the use ofiPhones for collecting and communicating information. Thirdly the committee asked questions of Deputy Commissioner of Police Mike Bush regarding his comments at a former police officer’s funeral. Just wait on a minute. This is all supposed to be breaking news in response to the issues of injustice and inequity of unlawful and unreasonable actions by police in respect of Operation Eight which is meant to restore the faith and confidence in police and we are talking about cellphones.In case there is any doubt about whether the police have a very real issue around public confidence and faith then we need to look at the advice of the United Nations and in particular the findings of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. That committee not just this year but back in 2005 as well has condemned this country for the disproportionately high rates of incarceration and overrepresentation of members of theMāori and Pasifika communities at every stage of the criminal justice system. Just putting that into the context of the policeMāori now comprise more than 40 percent of all police apprehensions despite being only 15 percent of the population. Is anybody actually worried about that? Well it seems that iwiMāori are.Six months ago a plan drawn up by Te ArawaNgāpuhiNgātiWhātua and Tainui and strongly endorsed by iwi leaders around the country was released to the world. For the education of the Committee that plan was called Turning the Tide and I want to share some of the thoughts—perhaps better phrased as the frustrations—of iwi in getting this strategy even off the ground in the first place. One of the members of theMāori Focus Forum is Dr ApiranaMahuika. He said that in 1996 he laid down achallenge to the police on behalf of iwi. He said: “Etū ki te kei o te waka kiapākia koe engāngaru o tewā.”Stand at the stern of the waka and feel the spray of the future biting at your face. What he was referring to in those words was that mostMāori who are victims or who are directly involved in crime are under the age of 25 years. In the words again of DrMahuika: “With our population of young people growing if we do nothing then even more Maori will end up in hospitals police cells courts and prisons.” He closed by saying: “We can’t let that happen.” I share these words with our leaders in the Chamber today because this is very very important. This is about shaping our future. It is about setting the directions for tomorrow. Should we not be interested in that? Surely.What we know is that iwi around the country are serious about working with the police to make a long-term change. What we know also is that the United Nations committee urges New Zealand to intensify its efforts to address the overall representation of members of theMāori and Pasifika communities at every stage of the criminal justice system. The committee even suggested that this can be done best by addressing the existing structural discrimination. So what do the police appropriations estimates say on this critical issue? Well it talks aboutiPhones.I want to remind the Committee that Operation Eight showed the ingrained system-based racial discrimination within the police force. Justice has not been served in the eyes of theMāori Party nor indeed in the eyes of the frightened children andwhānau thehapū and people ofRuātokiTūhoe andTāneatua. The police need to recognise and acknowledge their failings and to take steps to rebuild that broken relationship. TheMāori Party wants to see a system whereMāori do not have to fight for justice where institutional racism is confronted and addressed.For those members and indeed the public listening to this broadcast this afternoon I say that I recently read a book calledThe Prophet and the Policeman  which talks very much about RuaKēnana Te Kooti and a person by the name of Cullen a policeman who was the first New Zealand police commissioner in this country. It is a very good read and would set the scene for I suppose understanding why it would be that the people of theTūhoe nation and indeedMāori feel a little bit disgruntled that there is no admission and no moving forward by the police in respect of what happened in Operation Eight to at least acknowledge that they did not get it right and that they could have done things better. Under those conditions it is a good read about history but it is almost like history repeating itself if you read it today. I hope members of the Committee will be able to take that opportunity. The book is calledThe Prophet and the Policeman . It is out of the Parliamentary Library. I would recommend it as a very good read. Kia oratātou.