The Te Pāti Māori political party has announced it wants to abolish prisons in New Zealand. In a Facebook post this week, party co-leader Rawiri Waititi asks: “If you’re not trying to abolish prisons in Aotearoa, what are you doing in Parliament? “Political parties from across the House have used our longstanding policy to abolish prisons as an opportunity to scare the public, despite decades of evidence proving that prisons don’t work. “Te Pāti Māori stands firmly behind our policy of creating an Aotearoa where prisons are not needed. The idea being pushed by the Māori Party that the solution to the over-representation of Māori in prison is to abolish prisons altogether is insulting and dangerous.