Worth Richard: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Worth Richard: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:637;Page:7935] 
Dr RICHARD WORTH (National) 
: 
 We have just listened to a stinging rebuke of the Government by Dr Pita Sharples. He has described it as an evil Government. He said that all was not well in the Labour camp. So in the short comments that I make I will invite this Government to fold its tents clean its campsite and depart. 
This Government is hugely committed to tag lines. I would like to pick up on two of those tag lines that have a jurisprudential base and relate them to what is going wrong in the system—to what the Justice and Electoral Committee with concern has found. The first tag line is that “justice delayed is justice denied”. I would like to pick up the phrase and the theme that Dr Pita Sharples offered in a comment that he made so eloquently about the Waitangi Tribunal because I am very concerned—and he is very concerned—that a number of reports are still taking far too long to complete. And there are many illustrations. I just take the example he offered of the northern South Island or Te Tau Ihu inquiry—Wai 785 as it is ineloquently named—the hearings for which took 4 years to complete. Four years! That took as long as would a major matter running to the heights of the judicial empire from start to finish. That is wholly unsatisfactory. I join with Dr Sharples in his condemnation of processes that have produced that perverse illustration. 
I am a member of the Justice and Electoral Committee—or was at the time—that was told that that case was particularly complicated. I doubt that. These are straightforward issues of injustice requiring swift and speedy remedy. And is that remedy granted? Not at all. So it is right to join with others in condemning this Government for its process that led to both an abuse of the legal system and a clear disparity in the fruits of judicial distribution. But that is just one example of the tag line that justice delayed is justice denied. 
 I look at what is going on in the High Court in Auckland where the Minister for Courts will not listen to the pleas of judges and lawyers to remove from that court setting those methamphetamine cases that clog the court. There is no reason at all why those cases should be dealt with at that level. It is wholly appropriate for them to be dealt with at a lower level in the system so that judges can get on and process important and compelling work. But no for some reason—perhaps perversity—the Minister for Courts will not yield to those arguments. Instead he is absolutely determined it seems to me to perpetuate the tag line that justice delayed is justice denied. 
I would like to speak at length on these matters but time sadly does not permit that outcome. So I will address another tag line. The tag line is that “the courts are open to everyone like the Ritz Hotel”. What is the sophistry in that tag line? It is simply that these days because of the ways the Government has structured the legal aid system deserving cases are waiting to be resolved. But those cases cannot be resolved because of the strictures around the legal aid system. Of course we have seen the Government extend eligibility for legal aid. That is fine many may say. That is fine I would say but what the Government has not done is provide appropriate remuneration for those who are tasked to take on the often very challenging task of tricky legal aid cases. So what have we seen? As the young whip on the Government side would know we have seen a large number of lawyers no longer able or willing to take on legal aid cases. That is why I say that the courts are open to everyone like the Ritz Hotel. 
With the benefit of hindsight and no longer being on the Justice and Electoral Committee— 
Darren Hughes 
: Why not? 
Dr RICHARD WORTH 
:—because I have moved to higher pastures—I would just say in looking at this report that I may have felt that some other matters deserved to be brought to the attention of the Committee. But time does not permit the opportunity to identify those issues. Indeed there are headings in this report relating to review of electoral law relating to the Waitangi Tribunal relating to capital building relating to the High Court of Auckland—of which I have briefly spoken—and relating to issues of environmental performance that in themselves are worth significant 5-minute blocks of time. But I will stop there and say that this report brings no credit to Government members.