Iwi leader praises new Māori prison plan but says wider problem of racism needs to be fixed

Tuesday, 20 August 2019

The Government has launched an ambitious plan to drastically cut the number of Maori in prison from 52% down to 16% - to match the overall Maori population.

A Taranaki iwi leader believes a new approach to help Māori prisoners is a positive step but says until New Zealand admitted it had an underlying problem with racism little will change overall.

Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui kaiarataki Debbie Ngarewa-Packer has backed Hōkai Rangi, a new strategy to address the over-population of Māori behind bars.

Māori make up about 16 per cent of the population of Aotearoa but represent 52 per cent of the prison population. New Zealand also has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the OECD.

'It's statistics that the country should be ashamed of,' Ngarewa-Packer said.

* Being locked out of providing support for prisoners hasn't stopped iwi worker from trying to make a difference

* Corrections' review sees iwi prison volunteer's approval revoked**

Corrections' Minister Kelvin Davis launched the five-year Hōkai Rangi plan on Monday, a move labelled a game-changer by former national party MP and chair of the government's Safe and Effective Justice advisory group Chester Borrows.

Hōkai Rangi focuses on prioritising the wellbeing of Māori prisoners and their whānau.

Along with the appointment of a Corrections' Māori deputy chief executive, other work will include a gang engagement framework to reintegrate gang-affiliated prisoners along with a focus to update its kaiwhakamana policy to ensure kaumātua who came into the prison as volunteers were supported and resourced appropriately.

Ngāti Ruanui iwi leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer believes Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis' leadership should be replicated across the board, as inequalities in outcomes for Māori were widespread.

In July 2016, Ngapari Nui, of Ngati Ruanui, was stood down from his duties as a kaiwhakamana with Corrections after his life membership to Black Power was revealed to then-Minister Judith Collins.

At the time of his suspension, Nui had been spent the previous five years in the role, which included talking with inmates, offering them support and liaising with whānau.

A subsequent review by Corrections of its 7000 volunteers saw Nui's status as an approved visitor revoked.

However, Ngarewa-Packer said Nui had been reinstated to the role by Davis soon after the Labour-led Government was elected and was part of a group advising on justice reform for Māori.

Black Power life member Ngapari Nui, who is a kaimahi for Ngāti Ruanui iwi, is back working behind bars with prisoners.

She said Māori and iwi needed to be part of the decision-making process and share the role in terms of finding solutions.

On Monday, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis launched the Hōkai Rangi strategy to address the over-representation of Māori in the prison system. (File Photo)

'That's what the partnership of the Treaty (of Waitangi) is all about.'

But it needed to go beyond just a co-design role and there needed to be a focus on making sure the resourcing got to the people on the ground doing the work, and not get tied up in bureaucracy, Ngarewa-Packer said.

It was also necessary for the country to accept the role racism and the legacy of colonisation have played in the way Māori have been treated, she said.

Ngarewa-Packer said Davis' leadership in the Corrections' space should be replicated across the board, as inequalities in outcomes for Māori were widespread, including in health, welfare and education.

'There has to be a different approach.'