MEDIA STATEMENT

The Hon Tariana Turia
Maori Party Co-Leader | MP for Te Tai Hauauru
30 November 2011

Law change can't come too soon

Tariana Turia has spoken out strongly about the need to bring forward the changes that were made to the name suppression rules to be brought into law.

"In this morning's paper we have the ludicrous situation of two individuals involved in cases of child assault; one protected and the other exposed to public scrutiny.

"The Criminal Procedures legislation which we helped to pass into law in October this year, included a very important change to name suppression laws, which explicitly stated "the fact that a defendant is well known does not, of itself, mean that publication of his or her name will result in extreme hardship".

"It makes a mockery of the justice system, when the identity of a thirteen year old child is released into the public arena, despite her mother seeking name suppression, while a former all black star is allowed to keep his name secret".

"Last week in another courtroom, another former all black star was also granted name suppression in connection with a case of assault".

"Let me be clear - I don't condone violence of any sort whatsoever.

"But I have to ask in whose interests is name suppression being granted?"

"Quite clearly, the impact of adverse public interest was not considered consequential in the case of this teenager or her mother, while for former All Black players there appears to be another set of standards at play"

"The Maori Party believes justice must be seen to be fair, to be transparent, and to be even in its application of the law".

"As Simon Power said, at the introduction of the Criminal Procedure legislation, "being famous is not a good enough reason to be granted name suppression".

"As a community we have to ask ourselves, does it really matter if a person is a celebrity or the next door neighbour? If violence

ENDS

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