I have blogged before that one of the interesting things about political life is the strange bedfellows this life leads to on  some issues. While on a personal level he and I get on very well, it is rare indeed that I find myself agreeing with Hone Harawira. I found myself reluctantly agreeing that Hone had a point when he talked about taking DNA samples from young Maori without their informed consent.

Taking DNA samples without informed consent or pulling people over because of their race is a very short step from totalitarianism. Even so, I find myself conflicted on this issue.  The lawyer and law abiding citizen in me says “why shouldn’t  DNA be taken off everyone at birth and kept on a database?”  As the cliche has it, the innocent have nothing to fear, and for every person who has been convicted on the basis of DNA evidence, another has been exonerated.

At the same time, if I consider my own reaction if asked to give a DNA sample after – say – a warrant of fitness check, I would almost certainly say no, because of innate discomfort about “Big Brother”, and a lack of confidence that such samples would always be stored and cross referenced properly.

Last night the Maori Party voted against a Bill allowing policemen to stand for local bodies, largely on the grounds of lack of confidence in their integrity. While in my view that was a silly reason for not supporting the Bill, and  while the condemnation of the police by the Maori members was well over the top, again I could see the Maori Party’s view.

I have blogged before about the long lasting damage I believe was done to the reputation of the police by their (mis)handling of the Thomas case. I was interested to note from a recent North and South article that for others too, that issue is still very much alive. Until we can have  total confidence in the integrity and sample handling ability of the police,  we are right to be concerned about the taking of DNA samples without informed consent. And perhaps no matter how confident we are, taking DNA samples without reasonable cause is probably a step too far.