⚖️ Justice Policy
"Ko te mana o te tangata, me tiaki, me whakahonore – The dignity of a person must be protected and honoured."
🧱 Background
Aotearoa’s justice system is rooted in colonial control and systemic racism. Despite being only 15% of the population, Māori make up over
50% of the prison population. The system prioritises punishment over prevention and has failed to address the intergenerational impacts
of colonisation, poverty, and trauma. Prisons are increasingly privatised, underpinned by the prison-industrial complex, and disconnected
from restorative solutions.
🌿 Vision
We believe in a justice system that heals rather than harms — one that restores balance, upholds mana, and addresses the social roots
of harm. True justice comes from restoring relationships, empowering communities, and creating systems that prevent harm in the first place.
🎯 Objectives
- End mass incarceration and dismantle the prison-industrial complex.
- Restore Māori leadership and tikanga in justice processes.
- Invest in housing, mental health, addiction support, and community-led solutions to reduce harm.
- Shift from punitive to restorative and transformative justice models.
📜 Policy Commitments
- Set a national target to close all prisons by 2040, replacing them with kaupapa Māori and restorative justice alternatives.
- Fund kaupapa Māori justice systems such as whānau courts, iwi panels, and rangatahi-led alternatives to criminalisation.
- Decriminalise poverty, drug use, and survival-based behaviours through legal reform and harm reduction policy.
- Remove police from schools and increase investment in youth mentors, counsellors, and social workers.
- Repeal tough-on-crime laws and ensure bail, parole, and sentencing reform that centres equity and rehabilitation.
🛠 Implementation Plan
- Pass the Transformative Justice Act to set the legal framework for closing prisons and investing in alternatives.
- Transfer funding from police and prisons into housing, education, and community mental health support services.
- Launch pilot programmes of Māori-led community justice in five regions, with expansion plans by 2028.
- Establish a National Justice Transformation Commission co-led by tangata whenua and formerly incarcerated people.
- Repeal laws criminalising homelessness, minor drug offences, and youth offending.
📆 Timeframe
Year 1–2:
- Pass justice transformation legislation
- Launch pilot kaupapa Māori justice initiatives
- Redirect $500M from prisons to housing and support services
Year 3–5:
- Close 30% of prisons and replace with community-led alternatives
- Roll out national sentencing reform and decriminalisation laws
- Expand youth diversion and whānau-based justice systems
Year 6–10:
- Close all remaining prisons
- Embed tikanga-based restorative justice into law and practice
- Achieve a justice system led by communities, grounded in healing, equity, and tino rangatiratanga