Response:
Ministry of Justice:
Education is provided to the judiciary and lawyers by the relevant professional bodies. In New Zealand’s system of government, the principle of judicial independence requires that the Government does not direct the Institute of Judicial Studies as to the provision of educational resources for the Judiciary. Additional funding was secured in Budget 2019 for judicial training, and for additional Continuing Legal Education for lawyers, with a focus on sexual violence, and the Ministry is taking the opportunity to expand this training to family violence.
Police:
Police is committed to moving its workforce to be representative of the communities we serve. This includes ensuring we have representative levels of Women, Māori and other ethnic groups within our recruitment, promotion and retention rates. A programme of work on unconscious bias is currently being rolled out to all our people. NZ Police has a goal of half of all recruits being female, and is committed to increasing the number of women at all ranks. This is being achieved by increasing the number of women entering Police, and ensuring that they, and existing staff, are retained and developed to their full potential.
A programme of work is underway to embed flexible working arrangements. This will make it easier for women to join Police on flexible work arrangements. Progress to date shows women now account for around one in five constabulary staff, and work across the full range of policing activities. Women also hold a range of key leadership roles within Police, including on the Police Executive, as District Commanders, and as the head of major operations and work groups.
Corrections:
A range of staff across the three Ara Poutama Aotearoa women's prisons recently attended a week-long training programme, Poutamatia, designed to strengthen their practice in Te Mana Wāhine Pathway. It is a principle-based training programme designed to equip staff with key knowledge, tools and practice imperatives when facilitating, supporting and implementing pathways of wellness for Māori women. Poutamatia explores traditional and contemporary functions of Whānau (relationships), Kaitiaki (guardianship), Rangatira (leadership), Manaaki (respect) and Wairua (spirituality) and how to apply them in everyday practice.
Ara Poutama Aotearoa has guidance for staff on working with women and transgender people, including practice tools tailored to women.
A one-day trauma informed practice training was rolled out to all Ara Poutama Aotearoa prisons and community corrections sites in late 2018/ early 2019, with plans for this to be ongoing. Trauma informed practice cards are being developed for staff. There are trauma counsellors and social workers in all Ara Poutama Aotearoa women's prisons.
Wāhine Māori
NZ Police aims to increase the number of Māori to be represented of their proportion of the population by 2023, recruitment targets have been set to achieve this goal. Since July 2017 the number of wāhine Māori within the Constabulary workforce has grown by 38%.
Corrections: Many of the actions in the previous column will be designed for wāhine Māori in alignment with Ara Poutama Aotearoa's strategy, Hōkai Rangi.
One of the short-term commitments of Hōkai Rangi (within the first six to 24 months) is to co-design kaupapa Māori (Māori principles) services specifically for wāhine Māori and rangatahi (youth) Māori. A key focus will be on strengthening their sense of identity and belonging through better cultural awareness and connection to whānau (family), hapū (sub-tribe), and iwi (tribe) through rehabilitation and reintegration pathways and interventions.
All data collected by Ara Poutama Aotearoa can be disaggregated by gender and ethnicity. Moving forwards, under the recently created role and appointment of a Deputy Chief Executive Māori and the new Ara Poutama Aotearoa strategy Hōkai Rangi, we will be exploring ways of effectively measuring data and outcomes for wāhine Māori.
Many of the actions in the previous column will be designed for wāhine Māori in alignment with Ara Poutama Aotearoa's strategy, Hōkai Rangi.
One of the short-term commitments of Hōkai Rangi (within the first six to 24 months) is to co-design kaupapa Māori (Māori principles) services specifically for wāhine Māori and rangatahi (youth) Māori. A key focus will be on strengthening their sense of identity and belonging through better cultural awareness and connection to whānau (family), hapū (sub-tribe), and iwi (tribe) through rehabilitation and reintegration pathways and interventions.
All data collected by Ara Poutama Aotearoa can be disaggregated by gender and ethnicity. Moving forwards, under the recently created role and appointment of a Deputy Chief Executive Māori and the new Ara Poutama Aotearoa strategy Hōkai Rangi, we will be exploring ways of effectively measuring data and outcomes for wāhine Māori.