Submissions & Feedback
JustSpeak advocates for evidence-based policy and legislation through public campaign work and keeping our government accountable on justice issues. We regularly make submissions (written and oral) to Select Committees and provide feedback on legislation that is related to the criminal justice system.
Current Submissions & Feedback
Feedback: Oranga Tamariki Long Term Insights Briefing
This submission is informed by a research report on youth justice we have carried out alongside Amnesty International New Zealand.
The consultation lays out a range of options for preventing child maltreatment in Aoteaora. JustSpeak supports implementing all the options in the consultation to effectively prevent, respond to and enable healing from maltreatment.
It is also our view that the recommendations from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse and State and Faith based care must be fully implemented to prevent child maltreatment from occurring within state care. This will break the intergenerational cycles of harm that have occurred as a result of children and young people being in state and faith based care.
Submission: Crimes Legislation (Stalking and Harassment) Amendment Bill
JustSpeak generally supports this Bill as a necessary step in addressing the harm that occurs from stalking and harassment.
However, we see areas for improvement, particularly in early intervention and rehabilitation efforts. Consequences when harm has occurred is important, however simply relying on punitive responses, such as prison, does not necessarily make victims safer in the long term. A more comprehensive approach that includes rehabilitation and prevention is needed to effectively reduce harm and prevent further harm caused by stalking and harassment.
Submission: Oranga Tamariki (Responding to Serious Youth Offending) Amendment Bill
JustSpeak is strongly opposed to this legislation and recommends the committee reject the Bill in its entirety.
Our justice system could provide the opportunity for young people to be accountable for the harm they have caused, and give both them and their victims the opportunity to heal. We recommend the committee look at alternatives, such as community based organisations and programmes supporting pathways through restorative justice.
Feedback: Proposed changes to the Corrections Act 2004
JustSpeak is strongly opposed to the proposed legislative changes related to the management and treatment of people designated as "prisoners of extreme risk." These proposals represent a significant regression in the protection of human rights within New Zealand's correctional system.
As highlighted by the Ombudsman and the Inspectorate, the conditions in the Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit (PERU) are already inhumane and most likely violating international human rights standards. We support the Ombudsman’s call naming this unit as inhumane, unacceptable, and harmful and the subsequent recommendation to “stop the use of the PERU Operating Model, and remove operational control of the Unit from the Persons of Extreme Risk Directorate, without delay.”
Past Submissions & Feedback
2024
Submission: Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill
Te Tiriti o Waitangi is foundational to Aotearoa. It provides a place for us all to belong and work together to create a fair, just and flourishing Aotearoa.
This Bill is divisive and proposes to erase tino rangatiratanga and extinguish the rights of Māori that were agreed to by the Crown in 1840. It will make it almost impossible to legally honour the commitments of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Submission: Sentencing (Reform) Amendment Bill
JustSpeak submitted in opposition to this Bill recommending that the Committee reject the Bill in its entirety.
Unfortunately, this Bill represents the opposite of an effective, evidence-based approach. Prisons do not reduce offending, nor do they stop harm from happening. We need the Government to build pathways that lead people to better outcomes.
2023
Submission: Ram Raid Offending and Related Measures Amendment Bill
JustSpeak submitted in opposition to this Bill. This Bill is contrary to numerous United Nations Conventions, including the Committee on the Rights of the Child to raise the minimum age of criminal responsibility in line with international standards (to at least 14 years of age).
This Bill also violates and conflicts with several pieces of domestic legislation including human rights legislation pertaining to children and young people; and the Bill lacks evidential foundation in terms of research on reducing recidivism.
Joint Submission to the United Nations Committee Against Torture
This submission was prepared by JustSpeak and Amnesty International ahead of Aotearoa New Zealand’s 2023 review under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in July 2023.
Our submission mainly covers the period 2017 to the start of June 2023. Along with the prison system, this submission covers concerns relating to children and young people, the detention of people seeking asylum in criminal justice facilities, diplomatic assurances and accountability and oversight of the New Zealand Defence Force.
Submission: Corrections Amendment Bill
This submission covers a range of changes including:
Modernising and future-proofing the Act to clarify Corrections’ powers to monitor prisoner communications and information sources for intelligence purposes
Making changes to the disciplinary process in prisons to ensure it is timely and incentivises good behaviour
Strengthening processes for the authorisation and use of non-lethal weapons on prisoners,
Enabling limited mixing of remand accused and convicted prisoners
Our submission included recommendations relating to international obligations that the New Zealand Government is a signatory to, especially instruments that pertain to the well being of people in prison and their human rights.
Submission: Legal Services Amendment Bill
JustSpeak supports the Government's decision to strengthen legal aid services for everyone in Aotearoa.
We encourage the Government to improve the quality and standard of legal aid services by increasing funding. New Zealand's legal aid services are predominantly used by our lower socio-economic communities. We know that these communities by virtue of their incomes are at a higher risk of falling into the justice system. Currently though, legal aid services are underfunded, which makes accessibility even more difficult, especially as the cost of living continues to rise.
Submission: Human Rights (Incitement on Ground of Religious Belief) Amendment Bill
JustSpeak submitted in support to strengthen the laws around hate speech and hate crimes to keep everyone safe.
We believe everyone deserves to feel safe in our communities, and support the recommendations from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attacks on Christchurch masjidain.
We encouraged the Government to look into examples where education has been used to provide people with a deeper understanding of why their behaviour is harmful, and how they can make better decisions and/or stop engaging in harmful behaviour.
Submission: Declaration of inconsistency: Voting age in the Electoral Act 1993 and the Local Electoral Act 2001
JustSpeak strongly supports lowering the voting age to 16. By excluding 16 year olds from the right to vote, it takes away their ability to participate in the democratic process, ultimately determining how law and government policy develops and what affects them and their future as adults. Voting at 16 will provide better education around the importance of voting and the
role that it plays in engaging in a free and democratic society and thus change attitudes towards being lifetime voters.
We encouraged the Government to follow through on its commitment made and introduce a bill to Parliament as soon as possible.
Submission: The Immigration (Mass Arrivals) Amendment Bill
JustSpeak submitted against the proposed legislation and is extremely concerned about the changes proposed, specifically the increased amount of time a person seeking asylum who arrives in a larger group (of 30 or more) can be detained without a warrant, from 96 hours to 28 days.
Imprisoning people seeking asylum is unacceptable. We know this causes further fiscal and economic costs, as any time in prison increases a person's likelihood of experiencing poor social, health, education and justice outcomes. Besides this, people seeking asylum have often lived through unspeakable suffering and imprisoning them would risk exacerbating those experiences.
2022
Submission: Three Strikes Repeal Bill
JustSpeak strongly recommends the repeal of the Three Strikes Repeal Bill. These laws are not based on evidence, they threaten the integrity of New Zealand’s justice system, and they do not produce the results that were promised upon their implementation.
This law is an example of policy transfer from the United States, where they were created without any evidence base. The lack of evidence of efficacy in this or any other jurisdiction is an enormous and fundamental problem with the legislation.
Submission: Independent Electoral Review
This submission to the Independent Electoral Review responds to several consultation questions and topics where we see potential for transformational change towards a fair, just and flourishing Aotearoa.
Our key recommendations for electoral reform are:
Extending voting rights to people aged 16 and over.
Restore all prisoner voting rights.
Entrenchment of the Māori seats and enable Māori voters to switch electoral rolls at any time.
Consider public funding for political parties and election campaigns.
Remove the option for the electoral commission to refuse the nomination of people who have committed a criminal offence.
Government feedback: Ara Poutama Complaints System
JustSpeak submitted in support of implementing all recommendations in this report as it will provide immediate concrete benefits to those under the care and management of Ara Poutama, their whānau and communities. The implementation of a more streamlined and user-friendly system will help alleviate capacity pressure on frontline staff, provide clarity for people in our prisons, and reduce stressors that undermine overall wellbeing. A redesigned system should contribute to a safer working and living environment for everyone.
JustSpeak enthusiastically welcomes the redesign of the current complaints system as outlined in this report. Opportunities to learn and improve policy and practice must be a key feature of the redesigned system, as well as clear processes for integrating improvements in ways that support harm-reduction and help develop a positive resolution-focused culture within the Ara Poutama rōpū.
Government feedback: Oranga Tamariki Residential care and other matters
We are pleased to see the Ministry is looking to a new model of residential care, including moving away from larger residences towards smaller more family-like homes, with an associated shift to more trauma-informed and therapeutic residential care.
This submission covers a range of proposed changes including:
Secure Care
Use of restraint
Searching of young people
Information sharing
Options for remand
2021
Submission: Oranga Tamariki (Youth Justice Demerit Points) Amendment Bill
This Bill undermines the recent shift in our understanding here in Aotearoa (and that across comparable jurisdictions) that tough on crime approaches have not worked to make us safer, and have instead made us less safe, and caused immeasurable harm in our communities, with Māori, Pasifika and poor communities disproportionately impacted.
By repeatedly oversimplifying the youth justice system, this Bill fails to address the drivers of offending amongst young people, including neurodiversity, disability, poverty, substance use and interpersonal violence.
Additionally, the Bill does not address the presence of racial bias at every level of the justice system, and how this amendment will disproportionately impact rangatahi Māori. Removing the options for therapeutic jurisprudence would have severe implications for government accountability under Te Tiriti.
2020
Submission on the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill
JustSpeak has reviewed the changes proposed by the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill (the Bill). JustSpeak broadly supports the intent of the Bill, which is to remove the voting disqualification in respect of people serving a sentence of imprisonment of less than three years, and provide enrolment and access support for people in prison who are eligible to vote. However, Aotearoa New Zealand will not be truly democratic or human rights respecting if we continue to deny the right and responsibility of voting to New Zealanders sentenced to prison for three years or longer.
2018
Children, Young Persons and Their Families (Oranga Tamariki) Bill Submission
JustSpeak submitted in partial support of the Children, Young Persons and Their Families (Oranga Tamariki) Bill.
JustSpeak supports raising the age of youth justice to include all 17 year olds however also recommends a number of specific changes to the Bill.