New 'get out jail free' card in Prosecution Guidelines

I can only assume that ministers have not seen the outrageous new Prosecution Guidelines released quietly at the beginning of this month. They cannot possibly have seen them because they contradict both Coalition Agreements and the promises the Government has made to end race-based policies.

David Farrar of Kiwiblog alerted me to the matter via a reader who wrote in to his blog about it. The reader is a defence lawyer and expressed surprise at the blatant race discrimination.

The new guidelines quite literally provide a 'Get Out Of Jail Free' card to New Zealanders with at least one Māori ancestor.

The justification of this is that there are a disproportionate number of Māori in the criminal justice system:

Research over many years has consistently found that Māori are significantly overrepresented in the criminal justice system at every stage, including as victims, and we recognised at the start of the project that the discretion to prosecute may contribute to that."

The authors of the two-tiered guidelines treat the New Zealand people as if we are a bunch of idiots. They claim, "this does not promote different treatment based on ethnicity or membership of a particular group; it instead alerts prosecutors to situations and factors that may deliver inequitable outcomes."

Which is totally contradicted by the instruction to consider not charging someone simply because of their Māori heritage: "The guidelines ask prosecutors to think carefully about particular decisions where a person (whether the victim or the defendant) is Māori."

The defence lawyer who wrote to David Farrar provided the following analysis:

Essentially the new guidelines require prosecutors to take into account race when deciding whether to prosecute someone, or withdraw charges against them. Despite the claim that "this does not promote different treatment based on ethnicity", it is clearly designed to do exactly that.

As a defence lawyer, when advocating for my clients it will now be logical for me to include in my emails to the prosecution something like "I note that my client is Māori and therefore consideration must be given to the new Solicitor-General's guidelines when deciding whether it is appropriate to continue with this prosecution."

I am not ordinarily foul-mouthed, but let me tell you, a few choice words came to mind reading about this. It is outrageous, to say the least.

The Hobson's Pledge team want to make as many people aware of this as quickly as possible, so we have come to our supporters in the hope you will raise the roof with us

If you use social media, please consider contacting the following ministers to ask if they are aware of the prosecution guidelines and to let them know you are in complete opposition to them and will consider this a broken election promise if they do not do something about it.

Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith

(Facebook)

Attorney General Judith Collins

(Facebook)

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon

(Facebook)

Leader of NZ First Winston Peters

(Facebook)

Leader of the ACT Party David Seymour

(Facebook)

Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith

(X/Twitter)

Attorney General Judith Collins

(X/Twitter)

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon

(X/Twitter)

Leader of NZ First Winston Peters

(X/Twitter)

Leader of the ACT Party David Seymour

(X/Twitter)

Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith

(Instagram)

Attorney General Judith Collins

(Instagram)

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon

(Instagram)

Leader of NZ First Winston Peters

(Instagram)

Leader of the ACT Party David Seymour

(Instagram)

Email

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The guidelines were sent to lawyers on 3 October, but we are yet to see any reporting on it. You could also track down our media companies on social and email and send them a note.

These guidelines must be swiftly thrown in the bin before they come into force on 1 January 2025.

Ethnicity or whether or not one has a Māori ancestor should not be a factor in deciding to charge someone who has committed a crime. That is a separatist system. A two-tiered system. We cannot accept that our justice system is to work on the premise of "do the crime, do the time...except if you have Māori ancestry."

This is blatant discrimination. Why should a Chinese New Zealander, Samoan New Zealander, and an Irish New Zealander be charged for a burglary, but the 4th accomplice gets off scot-free by virtue of one of his great-grandparents being Māori?

We must make a racket. I can't imagine many New Zealanders would be happy about this, and that is probably precisely why the media aren't reporting on it.

So get out there and post on your own social media. Send emails. Spread the word. Tell the five decision-makers above how wrong this is and tell them on every platform possible. We will be doing the same.

Remember, this is our best chance to defeat these appalling policies, and we must not waste it.


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