Now it looks like that project is being picked up in earnest. Moves are happening at multiple levels. Political commentators have noted how Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Māori and Pasifika MPs to cover the justice-related portfolios in her second-term Cabinet. Kelvin Davis was already the Corrections Minister, and as the new Children’s Minister, he now also takes charge of Oranga Tamariki. Poto Williams is Police Minister, while Kris Faafoi replaces Andrew Little as the Justice Minister. These are symbolic top-level steps, if nothing else. However, decolonisation is a broad project. And flying slightly under the radar has been a call by Māori law academics for a grassroots reform of legal training.
Jess Hill, author of See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Abuse
Photo: Supplied
New Zealand legal history was made in September when the Supreme Court allowed former Christchurch Civic Creche worker Peter Ellis s appeal against charges of sexual offending to continue after his death. Ellis lawyer Natalie Coates talks about the cultural significance of this precedent.
Natalie Coates
Photo: supplied
Dr Kareem Adel Ismail says last year s Christchurch atrocity is a wake-up call that everything is not okay in New Zealand society.
Department of Conservation employee, Dr Kareem Adel Ismail, said mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch last year that left 51 people dead was not surprising.