May 13, 2020
Marae search powers recipe for chaos
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A member of the Police Commissioner’s Māori advisory committee says a proposed law giving the police the right to go onto the marae without a warrant to enforce COVID-19 restrictions was an overreach.
The Public Health Response Bill was passed yesterday evening and provides a legal basis for the actions of police and government agencies under Alert level 2, which came into force at midnight.
Attorney-General David Parker says it actually means the police have narrower powers than they have had in the past seven weeks while working under the Health Act and the State of National Emergency.
But Ngahiwi Tomoana from Ngāti Kahungunu says references to marae in the Bill alarmed Māori, and put police in a difficult position.
"Because we have built up such strong relationships, we do have weekly meetings or Zooms with the police commissioner, we do have a strong police commissioner's Māori advisory board, and at local level with police liaison officers, there is a strong bond. This sort of chucked everything back into chaos, the bad old days, and nobody, police included, wanted that," he says.
Ngahiwi Tomoana
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