Te Pae Oranga: Restorative community initiative starts in Sth Taranaki

Police and iwi partnership Te Pae Oranga, launched at Okaiawa, intends to help lower crime rates across the Taranaki region.

A new crime prevention initiative launched in South Taranaki this week has already proven its effectiveness in other parts of New Zealand.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said instead of sending people to court, they face an Te Pae Oranga Iwi Community Panel which acts as a jump start to help them make positive changes in their lives.

"A key feature of Te Pae Oranga are the panels of local community leaders, who have valuable knowledge and experience," Coster said.

"It also aligns with the police's goal echoed by many people, organisations and communities to reduce the number of people unnecessarily entering the justice system."

Aotearoa Marae in Okaiawa, South Taranaki, hosted the launch of the Te Pae Oranga Iwi Community Panels initiative - a partnership between police and iwi/Māori that has been successfully operating in other parts of the country.

Ngāruahine Iwi Authority manager Warren Nicholls said data from regions where Te Pae Oranga was operating were very encouraging.

"There are eight iwi in the Taranaki region and all were in agreement that we would like to see it operating in our rohe," he said.

"Panel members are selected for their relevant experience and abilities. They go through a vetting process, have online and face-to-face training and observe established panels as part of the process."

The new panel in Taranaki is the 16th in New Zealand. The service will operate across the rohe, from Mōkau in the north to Pātea in the south.

Te Pae Oranga is mainly for people who have underlying issues and need help to get their lives back on track.

"A lot of people end up in prison for driving offences," Nicholls said.

"Sometimes it is a simple matter of getting a licence to stop offending and this process can help them do that.

"Other offending is more complex and Te Pae Oranga is a whānau-based approach where victims and family members are invited to join the process and the panel supports everyone involved."

Nicholls said although the initiative was officially launched this week it had been operating in Taranaki since early February. There had already been 19 successful panel meetings.

Deputy Police Commissioner for Iwi and Communities Wally Haumaha said Te Pae Oranga was a Māori-led approach for dealing with crime that was open to, and effective for, people of all ethnicities.

"There's sometimes a misconception that Te Pae Oranga is a soft option - it's not.

"Anyone who's seen a panel in action knows it can be a confronting experience."

Haumaha said participants had to accept responsibility, be open about their faults and problems, and ask for help from people in their community.

An evaluation published in 2019 showed Te Pae Oranga reduced harm from reoffending by 22 per cent.

Ngāruahine Iwi Authority chairman Hori Manuirirangi welcomed the milestone.

"As an iwi-owned and operated service provider, Ngāruahine Iwi Authority is both humbled and privileged to be delivering Te Pae Oranga on behalf of all iwi of Taranaki," he said.

"By partnering with New Zealand Police, we are excited to extend this restorative justice model across Taranaki to enhance mana motuhake in furthering the Whānau Ora desire to achieve equitable and meaningful outcomes for whānau.

"Te Pae Oranga helps do this by addressing the underlying social, cultural and behavioural contexts of offending, and truly enables and contributes to our vision of uplifted, successful, secure and nurturing whanau."