Court alternative helps cut crime

System relies on panels of local community leaders

Anew crime prevention initiative launched in South Taranaki this week has already proved its effectiveness in other regions.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said instead of sending people to court, they faced an Te Pae Oranga Iwi Community Panel which acted as a jump-start to help them make positive changes in their lives.

“A key feature of Te Pae Oranga are the panels of local community leaders, who have valuable knowledge and experience,” Coster said. “It also aligns with the police’s goal echoed by many people, organisations and communities to reduce the number of people unnecessarily entering the justice system.”

Aotearoa Marae in Okaiawa, South Taranaki, hosted the launch of the Te Pae Oranga Iwi Community Panels initiative — a partnership between police and iwi/ma¯ori that has been successfully operating in other parts of the country.

Nga¯ruahine Iwi Authority manager Warren Nicholls said data from regions where Te Pae Oranga was operating were very encouraging.

“There are eight iwi in the Taranaki region and all were in agreement that we would like to see it operating in our rohe,” he said. “Panel members are selected for their relevant experience and abilities. They go through a vetting process, have online and face-toface training and observe established panels as part of the process.”

The new panel in Taranaki is the 16th in New Zealand. The service will operate across the rohe, from Mo¯kau in the north to Pa¯tea in the south.

Te Pae Oranga is mainly for people who have underlying issues and need help to get their lives back on track.

“A lot of people end up in prison for driving offences,” Nicholls said.

“Sometimes it is a simple matter of getting a licence to stop offending and this process can help them do that.

“Other offending is more complex and Te Pae Oranga is a wha¯nau-based approach where victims and family members are invited to join the process and the panel supports everyone involved.”

Nicholls said although the initiative was officially launched this week it had been operating in Taranaki since early February. There had already been 19 successful panel meetings.

Deputy Police Commissioner for Iwi and Communities Wally Haumaha said Te Pae Oranga was a Ma¯ori-led approach for dealing with crime that was open to, and effective for, people of all ethnicities.

“There’s sometimes a misconception that Te Pae Oranga is a soft option — it’s not.

“Anyone who’s seen a panel in action knows it can be a confronting experience.”

Haumaha said participants had to accept responsibility, be open about their faults and problems, and ask for help from people in their community.

An evaluation published in 2019 showed Te Pae Oranga reduced harm from reoffending by an astonishing 22 per cent.

Nga¯ruahine Iwi Authority chairman Hori Manuirirangi welcomed the milestone.

“As an iwi-owned and operated service provider, Nga¯ruahine Iwi Authority is both humbled and privileged to be delivering Te Pae Oranga on behalf of all iwi of Taranaki.

“By partnering with New Zealand Police, we are excited to extend this restorative justice model across Taranaki to enhance mana motuhake in furthering the Wha¯nau Ora desire to achieve equitable and meaningful outcomes for wha¯nau,” Manuirirangi said.

“Te Pae Oranga helps do this by addressing the underlying social, cultural and behavioural contexts of offending, and truly enables and contributes to our vision of uplifted, successful, secure and nurturing whanau.”