Tisch Lindsay: Justices of the Peace Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Tisch Lindsay: Justices of the Peace Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:638;Page:8585] 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to take a call on this very important legislation which National has supported right through from the first reading back on 19 July last year and the second reading. We are now supporting it in the Committee stage and will be supporting it at the third reading. 
Part 1 refers to the appointment of justices of the peace and their continuing in office. One of the concerns that has surprised me over the years that I have dealt with is self-promotion. People in the community will ring up and say that they are interested in becoming a JP. When one questions them and asks why they want to do that they say they are retired and have the time to put into it. But when one sits down to see what their motivation really is one sees that it is not necessarily about serving the community but more about saying that they are a JP and having that honorific behind their name. 
On occasions however there are shortages of JPs. I mentioned in the second reading someone I know very well who is a JP and who no longer lives in the same rural district. Another person who was a JP in that district had died and a third person had been a JP for about 5 years and was not prepared to do anything at all. That rural community was not being serviced and that made it very difficult to have continuity and for that community to access the services that JPs are required to do. 
One of the aspects of this bill that I fully support is that justices will undertake training before they are actually appointed and gazetted. That will streamline the process considerably. A number of JPs—in fact the registrar gave me some information about that and it is about 500 or 600—are not members of any justices association in the country. There is no requirement at the present time for them to undertake any training. In Matamata where I have been the president of the local branch for a number of years we have undertaken training on a regular basis so that local justices have an opportunity to be up to speed with all the legislation and more important the practical aspects of being a ministerial JP. 
When 500 to 600 JPs are not members of any justices association it makes it very difficult to have some continuity and some acceptable standards. It is not an onerous task to become a JP if one meets the requirements and there is a need. If one can ascertain that there is a need in a community for another JP that is great but in many cases there is not. I had someone ring today wanting to nominate someone. I said that if that person showed me a need in the community I would look to support that nomination. Unless that can be done then I am afraid we are often talking about self-promotion. I see heads nodding on the other side of the Chamber. 
Another thing that I think is important as a JP is that I always carry the little booklet. It is always in my possession because in it one can see exactly what the roles are and one can refer to it and find out what is actually required. If one is going to issue a summons for a defendant or be involved in a search warrant it explains word by word what to do and how to go about that. So I always carry that in my bag and on numerous occasions over the years it has been very very useful to have. 
Of course most JPs get involved only in witnessing documents. That role is probably very straightforward. Other duties are to take statutory declarations and oaths of allegiance. Probably not many JPs would issue search warrants but on occasion that happens. JPs issue summonses and warrants to arrest and also sometimes if the Minister wants someone to they can be involved in citizenship ceremonies. So all in all JPs are a very valuable community asset. They have earned prestige and are well respected in the community and they carry that with them. 
In the area of training I think this bill goes a long way to making sure that justices are brought up to speed. JPs must do that training before they are gazetted. I will quote from a submission that was made to the Law and Order Committee. I did not sit on the select committee but I can identify with this case and I think it is really worth mentioning it here. A 62-year-old woman who presented herself for training did not cope well with the course. She had three private training sessions a further round of training with another induction group and completed a CD-ROM training programme. After all this training some 14 hours and a lot of one-on-ones she sat the test which is standardised throughout New Zealand. At 12 marks out of 50 she failed the test but she still became a JP. That is the sort of situation this bill will tidy up. We are looking for standards and we are looking for integrity in the process—that is very very important. 
The other area this bill deals with is the retired status. The registrar emailed me and said that—these figures are probably out of date now but I think they highlight a point—there are about 220 JPs born before 1920 with 94 of those aged over 90 years. That is a significant number of people who at that age probably are not really interested in doing JP duties. Having the retired status and the honorific behind their name will show that they have made a valuable contribution to society and they will be recognised in that way without having to go through the process of any other training or having to be called on for duties. 
So with those few words I say that this is important legislation for justices of the peace throughout New Zealand. The Royal Federation of New Zealand Justices’ Associations can be congratulated. This has been in the pipeline for a long time and I know how impatient JPs have been getting in some cases. This bill is certainly a move in the right direction.