Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Maori Party reject expansion of legal aid

The speeches are coming thick and fast from Hone Harawira. And they are always so interesting. Here he is speaking to a bill which will see an expansion of eligibility to legal aid.

"By 2010, Maori will be the most imprisoned people per capita in the world. So yes, Mr Speaker, like it or not, the way things are going, Maori are going to need Legal Aid like never before. So when the Maori Party looks at this Legal Services Amendment Bill, we ask the questions do so with one focus - how will this Bill change things for Maori?"

Hone says he doesn't want Maori represented by the legal "bunnies" the legal aid system turns out. He doesn't want Maori represented in courts that are, "mono-cultural, and their language and procedures deny Maori access to justice."

In fact what he wants is an entirely separate justice system.

And so the Maori Party will oppose the bill because, "It deals with individual rights while continuing to deny Maori their collective whanau, hapu and iwi rights and in fact their human right to the same measure of justice enjoyed by all other citizens in Aotearoa."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about the human rights of the victims of crime? It's time the crimial system focused on the rights of the victime and not on the rights f the crimials.

Anonymous said...

I understand that legal aid actually has (is supposed) to be paid-back.

Does anyone know how much actually ever is?

Lindsay Mitchell said...

Spam, looks like it is means-tested

from www.lsa.govt.nz (Legal Services Agency)

* You will have to pay $50.00 with your application. It will be refunded if you don't get legal aid.
* If you don't have $50.00 talk to your lawyer - you may not have to pay this or you may be able to pay this at a later date.
* You may have to pay more towards your legal aid - this is called a contribution. The amount you have to pay depends on your financial situation.
* The Agency can ask you to pay your contribution in different ways, for example in a lump sum, in in-stalments or when you sell your house or other property. You might have to pay in more than one way.
* If your contribution is over $300 and you own a house or other property, the Agency will take a “charge” over your property until you pay your contribution. (A charge is like a mortgage or loan agreement).
You will have to pay back your contribution when you sell your property if you haven't paid it back before then.

Anonymous said...

Lindsay -

Thanks for the info. We were involved in a dispute where the other party was on legal-aid, and we weren't. They kept filing affidavit after affidavit, which our lawyer would meet with us to discuss - burning-up fees. We consoled ourselves that they would also have to pay-back the legal fees - I guess we were wrong.

Anyway - apologies for the threadjack.