Community law centres

There is a saying attributed to 24 BC philosopher Lao Tse which I have often thought about, as I reflect on the various challenges facing our nation. It goes:

“As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence; the next best they honour and praise;

the next best fear; the next hate;

but when the best leaders’ work is done, the people say:

‘We did it ourselves’.”

It could have been written for the Maori Party.

It could have been written for Community Law Centres.

It could have been written for this marae – or Hoani Waititi marae – or indeed any marae throughout Aotearoa.

And it most certainly describes the work of the Neighbourhood Law office in Grey Lynn which has been leading community law in this community for some thirty years.

I pay tribute to those pioneers like Robert Ludbrook, Piers Davies, Bruce Slane, Agnes Tuisamoa, Pare McIntrye, and Vapi Kupenga who have been supporting this community in their legal needs –and needs which we all know are not resolved simply by the provision of legal services.

I was, therefore, so pleased to join with you all, in your national hui – to celebrate your leadership in supporting community to do it themselves.

I was also pleased to have an opportunity to talk about my vision for law and justice.

It is of course extremely helpful that the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination released its findings in time for this Hui a Tau.

Amongst the recommendations were explicit directions to engage Maori in dialogue with the State about the discriminatory effects of the Foreshore and Seabed Act; to ensure that Waitangi Tribunal recommendations were binding; and to encourage better implementation of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and I quote:

“bearing in mind the importance of enhancing Crown-Maori relationship at all levels and the enjoyment by indigenous peoples of their right”s.

There were also specific recommendations regarding the over-representation of Maori and Pacific people in the prison population and more generally at every stage of the criminal justice system; challenging the Government to address racial discrimination in the administration and functioning of the criminal justice system.

And a particularly interesting note of regret that New Zealand has not assessed the extent to which section 27 of the Sentencing Act 2002, providing for the courts to hear submissions relating to the offender’s community and cultural background, has been implemented and with what results.

For those of you who have been around, shall we say, you may remember the origins of this clause in section 16 of the Criminal Justice Act 1985, in which the personal, family, whanau, community, and cultural background of the offender actually matter. Matter- in terms of evidence that could be presented to the court about :

• the way in which background may be relevant to the offence; 
• any restorative justice processes that have been tried or are available;
• how support from the family, whanau, or community may be available to help prevent further offending by the offender; and
• how the offender's background, or wider support may be relevant in respect of possible sentences.

Research produced by experts of the quality of Di Pitama, Kiwi Tamasese, Charles Waldegrave, Alison Chetwin, Tony Waldegrave, Kiri Simonsen and Peter King has shown that when these provisions have been used they enhanced both the content and the process of sentencing – but overwhelmingly the evidence showed that there was both a low utilisation and a low level of awareness of section 16 – (and we can presume section 27).

The fact that our legal practitioners, judiciary, community advocates are either unaware, or not utilising such a key concept gives me much concern.

The capacity to encourage iwi, whanau and hapu support; to create possibilities for community based sentences; to demonstrate that cultural vitality and strength can be linked to positive rehabilitation is, to me, central to my vision of justice.

No doubt you will also be very familiar with the Law Commissions report on Maori custom and values in New Zealand. This report was heavily influenced by the scholarship of Eddie Taihakurei Durie who pointed out how a lot of research was being judged according to the coloniser’s agenda, and ignored what he described as “the depth of the ancestral opinions that influenced Maori thinking”.

As part of this, the Maori Custom and Values report encouraged New Zealanders to make an enduring commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and to Maori values to law – putting the effort in to understanding what tikanga Maori is.

The Maori Party actively pursues the course of justice, te whainga i te tika, as fundamental to the Maori world view. We see it as encompassing all areas of life from the wrongs people may do to one another to the rules that determine how the land should be cared for.

I want to just share an example dear to my heart about how we can draw on tikanga Maori in the every-day business of pursuing law.

I am not talking about cosmetic window-dressing; bilingual signs or a few Maori advisors called on for rituals of encounter. The type of vision I am thinking of all to do with the process which gives effect to the expression and maintenance of tikanga.

I am talking about restorative justice.

I am sure you are all aware that the legendary Professor Howard Zehr, is currently here in Aotearoa, on a Fulbright visit based at the Restorative Justice Centre at the AUT University. Sometimes described as the grandfather of RJ; Zehr defines restorative justice as “a process to involve…those who have a stake in a specific offence…..address harms, needs and obligations, in order to heal and put things as right as possible”.

As the late Allan Martin of LV Martin and Son fame would say, "if it's not right we'll put it right and it's the putting right that counts". That to me is what restorative justice is all about. But how does it interact with tikanga?

Restorative Justice

One of our enduring kaupapa is manaakitanga; ensuring that the mana of all peoples might be properly and respectfully acknowledged. For manaakitanga to be attained it is essential that the ideal of a fair and just community be established both in the structural functioning of society and in the operations of its justice system. I believe that restorative justice is absolutely key to this.

I have always been proud that Courts such as the Waitakere Court had recognised restorative justice programmes as long ago as the 1970s.

The Maori Party, in recognising the mana of all people, and building on these initiatives, promotes a system based on restorative principles, and less on adversarial practices.

We want to see key Maori justice principles and practices applied, such as

• empowering victims of crime (whether an individual, a whanau, or a community);
• enhancing community involvement in the justice process;
• treating an offender as part of the wider community and not as an isolated individual; and
• developing responses to wrong doing that enable the restoration of the mana of all who have been affected by criminal behaviour or wrong-doing.

The restorative justice system is a system which is concerned with real emotions: care, remorse, sadness, anger, shame, hate, love, all those kinds of expressions. And that's the real nitty gritty of life.

Restorative justice puts into play the traditions that emphasize the community's role in the practice of justice. It’s about dealing with real life – with anger, with forgiveness - everyone is equally important and the focus is on the group, not just the victim. It is about restoring mana as well as healing the offender.

It is about the restoration of balance to all, the victim and the victim's family whose lives were thrown out of kilter by the actions of another. Ironically it is also about the restoration of balance to the family of the offender, whose lives were also thrown out of kilter by the negative actions of one of their members.

In the restoration of the balance of relationships within the community disturbed by the offending, the whanau play a key role – and that again, is part of my vision of justice.

That we restore and reconnect our whanau as the keepers of the culture, the keepers of caring, the keepers of justice.

For the proper protection of the well-being of whanau, hapu, and iwi, we believe our systems must properly acknowledge the fundamental importance of whanau, hapu and iwi.

And of course, the process of Family Group Conferences that we have pioneered in this country is renown as a practical demonstration of restorative justice in action.

It comes back, as all things do, to the whanau, the family, the community, taking the lead, in putting things right.

It is about living a vision in which the care and wellbeing of our community and our whanau, become an important measure of social harmony.

It is about behaving in such a way to reflect reconciliation, to undo any harm, and to work in ways which will open up the possibilities for communities to lead our own solutions.

This, my friends, is part of our bigger vision for Aotearoa. That we can be part of the solution in all aspects of the environmental, social, cultural, economic and political life of this great country of ours.

And that, we must all be part of the putting right.

The putting right must involve Mäori, te käkano i ruia mai i Rangiätea, and it must involve Tangata Tiriti - those people who come to this land by means of the Treaty - for the benefit of all citizens of this land. That is the true meaning of justice.