Hone Harawira: Succession (Homicide) Bill
te-pati-maori
Wed May 09 2007 12:00:00 GMT+1200 (New Zealand Standard Time)
Hone Harawira: Succession (Homicide) Bill
Wednesday, 9 May 2007, 9:45 am
Speech: The Maori Party
Succession (Homicide) Bill
Second Reading - Tuesday 08 May 2007
Hone Harawira, Justice Spokesperson for the Maori Party
Thirty years ago, Bob Geldolf and the Boomtown Rats took their songI don’t like Mondays, to No 1 in the UK. It told the story of an horrific shooting spree of 16 year old Brenda Ann Spencer, who killed two adults, and injured eight kids and a police officer. Spencer’s only explanation was ‘I don’t like Mondays’.
Yesterday was a Monday in New Zealand just like that, as the nation reeled from the tragic effects of the deaths over the weekend of three innocent kids in Christchurch and Whanganui.
And while the country woke to those horrifying stories, other reports of homicide were coming in from other parts of the nation.
In Rotorua, the jury heard the case of a Waikato man on trial for a domestic double murder.
In Napier, a depositions hearing began for the man accused of murdering Hawkes Bay farmer Jack Nicholas.
And in Auckland, the defence opened its case in the trial of a 32-year-old woman and her 27-year-old partner for murdering the woman's three-year-old son.
Madam Speaker, the tragedy about these cases, is that this was just another Monday in Godzone, because since 1990 we’ve had nearly 120 homicides each and every year, a tragic figure which is but a glimpse into the wide scale trauma that rocks our world.
And it is with that background in mind Madam Speaker, that we come to the House today to debate the Succession (Homicide) Bill, a sad but logical consequence of living in a nation with such a high homicide rate; a Bill born of the crime of murder enacted far too often in this country.
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The purpose of the Bill is to clarify the law so that killers can’t benefit from the estate of those they have killed; a clarification the Maori Party supports, while noting some issues raised at select committee that still need closer attention.
Negligence
Madam Speaker, negligence is a major issue in this Bill and a submission from the National Council of Women recommends that causing death by negligence, like when someone driving negligently causes the death of a passenger in the car, should also be included under the terms of this Act.
The New Zealand Police Association also wanted negligence included within the terms of the Act. They were concerned that in cases where somebody had killed their spouse, the killer might still profit from the victims estate, through a claim that the murder was an act of recklessness, and nothing more than “a negligent act”.
Restriction of claims
A finer point of the Bill though is to ensure that while people should not profit from murder, neither should they be deprived of rights not related to the murder. That took a while to get my head around, but in the end I accept that being wrong for one thing shouldn’t mean having to suffer for everything.
Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993
Madam Speaker, an issue I raised during the first reading of this Bill, was the impact the Bill might have on the succession to Maori land under the Ture Whenua Maori Act of 1993, which states thatowners of Maori land can only will their land to whanau, and where somebody dies without leaving a will, the Act will ensure that the property stays within the whanau.
During the select committee debate, we were told that if a killer loses their property interests under the Bill, the Ture Whenua Act would ensure the land remained in the family.
That principle came from traditional practice, first introduced into law through the NZ Maori Council in 1983, when they called for Maori land to be kept in the hands of its owners, and for law and policy to reflect Maori land ownership and use by the whanau and hapu.
Maori communal ownership and strong links to the whenua became the over-riding priority rather than the rights of the individual, and we were keen to ensure that the Bill did not cut children out from succession to land because of the sins of the parents.
We were also told that the Succession (Homicide) Bill would not stop whanau from giving a person back their land interests if the whanau so wished, even if that person had been responsible for the death of another whanau member.
Consultation
Given the significance of Maori connection to their whenua, I will be keen to hear the Minister’s call during committee stage, to see how much consultation there was with tangata whenua over this Bill.
I know that the Law Commission was consulted and that in preparing the original report and draft legislation they also consulted with the Public Trust, academics and a former Law Commissioner.
But we know too that specific consultation with Maori, was a key suggestion in the 1996 working paper of Doctors Pat Hohepa and David Williams, and we hope government sees the value of that, to this piece of legislation as well
Conclusion
Finally, I return again to yesterday’s events.
Alongside the reports of court hearings and tragic eyewitness accounts, came new research from Victoria University’s Liz Moore regarding the homicide of some 69 children murdered over the past twenty years which showed that most of them lived in normal family situations with both parents, but that because of poor record-keeping and classification of coronial records, data gaps were common, and proper research could not be completed.
We need that research, we need answers, and we need firm action to deal with the questions like: what value do we place on human life; how do we protect our most vulnerable from attack; and how do we ensure that kids are not denied their rights because of the actions of their parents.
In questioning the futility of life, Bob Geldof says he“can see no reasons, 'cos there are no reasons; what reason do you need to die?”
And my reply would be that there may be many reasons why we do die, but there are no excuses for us to continue to accept the actions that lead to the scourge of homicide that blights our world.
Ends
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