Congratulations! You are part of a community of people who speak up against racism, inequality, and division, and that community has had a big win!

The Solicitor General heard our cries of "You cannot be serious" and has pulled a quick U-turn on her dodgy Prosecution Guidelines.

Una Jagose KC has taken down the Prosecution Guidelines and is reviewing them. They will be republished once amended.

Significantly, she told the media that she realised she had missed the mark after reading and listening to public commentary. That is us! Public commentary is all the Hobson's Pledge supporters who spoke up.

We provided you with the Facebook, Instagram, and X accounts of the Minister of Justice, the Attorney General, the Prime Minister, and the leaders of New Zealand First and ACT, and encouraged you to demand answers from them.

Hobson's Pledge supporters heard the call and showed en masse on their social media pages and in their inboxes. You made a difference. We can all be very proud of this result.

A recap in case you missed the insanity this week:

The Solicitor General released her new Prosecution Guidelines to be effective 1 January 2025. In those guidelines were alarming instructions to treat Māori offenders differently to everyone else.

"The guidelines ask prosecutors to think carefully about particular decisions where a person (whether the victim or the defendant) is Māori."

A defence lawyer writing to David Farrar's Kiwiblog said:

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 can anticipate that I will get some replies saying this is only a small victory, and we are still faced with a deluge of race-based policies yet to be fixed. However, when faced with so much to be frustrated about, it is important that we take a moment to celebrate these wins.

Momentum is important. One backdown can precipitate another. Next time a senior public servant thinks they will get away with slipping racially segregated policies into their guidelines they will think twice. They don't want to have to front the media and eat humble pie.

So take a moment to toast the win this weekend.