“Well bugger me – now I’m a judge I find I have the confidence to declare that I’m a Maori too”

A curious thing happens to lawyers – apparently – as they progress up the pecking order to become judges.

They discover they are indigenous persons – or become confident about declaring they are indigenous persons.

Alf learned of this phenomenon while listening to some members of the Maori legal profession questioning why the Government’s data on the number of judges who identify as tāngata whenua is out-of-date.

It should be a matter of no concern, in a land with one rule for all, if a judge can identify as tangata whenua, or as Chinese, or as Hottentot… or as anything.

The law is the law is the law and a judge is a judge is a judge.

If we passed the appropriate exams and followed the right career path, we could all be judges. And we should be colour-blind judges.