Wednesday 17 April 2013; 4pm

GENERAL DEBATE – Te Ururoa Flavell, Māori Party, Waiariki

'Institutional Racism'

Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. Kia ora tātau katoa. I a au e tū nei me mihi rā ki tērā mema i tū ki mua i te aroaro o te Whare Pāremata i tēnei ahiahi i a ia e kōrero ana mō ngā mea kua oti i a ia.

[Greetings to you, Mr Speaker, and to us all. As I stand here I must acknowledge that member who stood before the House of Parliament this afternoon while she was talking about the things she had done.]

So can I just add my congratulations to Jackie Blue and thank her for her contribution. I feel a bit of a killjoy after that speech, with all its positivity, in raising the issue that I want to put before the House. I wish you well, Jackie, in your career ahead of you.

In the time I have got, I want to talk about a topic that often provokes all sorts of severe reactions, as if it were the first time the words have ever been uttered. What I am talking about is the topic of institutional racism.

Over thirty years ago it was identified that Māori experience disproportionate treatment in the New Zealand justice system. People do not see things such as over-representation of Māori in all of the worst statistics as a result of racism; on the contrary, they tend to think that it is a Māori problem that we often try to justify by claiming racism. I reject that.

Those are ignorant and divisive thoughts, and they are preserved by our current systems, which are geared towards disadvantaging Māori in the police force, the courts, corrections, and, of course, the justice system.

One of the good things about being in Parliament is that you get clear statistics and information that might back the claim. In the past week or so the organisation JustSpeak released a very clear overview that spoke about the chances of being prosecuted for a crime if you were a young Māori—that it was far more likely that you would be prosecuted if you were Māori than non-Māori. For the 3,495 theft apprehensions recorded as Caucasian there were 588 prosecutions and for Māori, for the 5,660 apprehensions recorded, 1,173 resulted in prosecution—in other words, rates of 16.8 percent versus 20.7 percent.

Even worse, there are 15 categories of offences, ranging from homicide to theft to property offences, with everything in between, and in 14 of those 15 categories Māori have a higher proportion of apprehensions leading to prosecutions. The category that is the exception is for “miscellaneous offences”. Such was our concern about this that we asked questions of the Minister of Police, who is in the House at present, about this matter. It is something that we do take seriously and we will continue to advocate against, this type of racism.

Most people would think that there is a simple reason, and if you commit a crime, then you do the time. The thing is, following apprehension for a crime, the percentage of Māori who are then prosecuted is far higher than the percentage of Pākehā who are prosecuted. If a Māori teen and a Pākehā teen are apprehended for the same crime, the young Māori is more likely to be prosecuted while the Pākehā youth is more likely to get off. Does this not raise questions of fairness and of discrimination in those people who would be sceptical of institutional racism? That is the question. Sadly, I would expect not so.

When the apprehension of a suspect occurs, there is often an element described as discretion. It can be used by the arresting officer as to whether to proceed or to not arrest. One might ask what is considered by that officer when they are using their notions of discretion. Are their decisions going to be informed by their own views about Māori people and about Pākehā people?

Once in the system, of course, what are the options that are being offered to offenders that might enable them to plan for a future, without being stigmatised by the slur of a criminal conviction? We know about diversion schemes and restorative justice programmes, but are these being offered fairly? Are they being offered to young people, in order that they might be able to avoid conviction and have a shot at growing up and learning from their experiences? The data that was presented by JustSpeak suggests not.

Ethnic bias within the Police and criminal justice system is real. There have been numerous instances and reports in New Zealand that tell us that it is real. Kim Workman from the Rethinking Crime and Punishment group suggests that there are a number of avenues that need to be looked at, including traffic stop procedures, ethnic profiling, offender eligibility for diversion, and pre-charge warnings, to name a few. I have been interested in the whole notion of community law forums. So that is the concern, and the Māori Party will be raising a bill in the near future called the Elimination of Institutional Racism Bill, and we hope to introduce that into the members’ ballot very shortly.

ends

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