The headline item on One News today was about a group of lawyers who asked the Waitangi Tribunal to hear a case that high Maori imprisonment and reimprisonment rates reflect racism. The Tribunal has fast-tracked an urgent hearing to deal with this travesty.

The elephant in the room of course is that the difference between male vs female imprisonment and reimprisonment rates is much greater than any racial differences. So it seems that high Maori imprisonment rates are due to racism but high male rates are because men are just bad bastards.

We know that the only gender-specific laws in NZ discriminate against men, such that an assault committed by a man towards a woman has twice the punishment for exactly the same assault committed by a woman, and that deliberately killing a baby or young child can only lead to a murder prosecution and punishment for men while women have their own special crime for this providing a maximum of three years imprisonment, rarely given. However, we’re not aware of any race-specific law that similarly discriminates against Maori. We also know that good research has shown significant anti-male sexism in our justice system regarding prosecutions and sentencing, but is there similar evidence that Maori are more likely to be charged more often and sentenced more harshly than other races for the same crimes? Never mind, as was the case for the UN ‘special rapporteur’ who came to NZ about two years ago to bemoan our racist society, sexism disadvantaging men is fine and can be ignored.