Ryall Tony: Independent Police Complaints Authority Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Ryall Tony: Independent Police Complaints Authority Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
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Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay Of Plenty) 
: 
 The National Party in Opposition—for the next few months—will be supporting the progress of this bill. We look forward to being consulted by the Government about the individuals who will be appointed to the Independent Police Complaints Authority in due course. In speaking in support of this bill and without taking too much time there are two matters that I will raise. The first is the amount of time that the authority takes to deal with police complaints and the second is the National Party proposal that would see the Independent Police Complaints Authority expanded to include the prison complaints service. 
Information I received from the Government on Monday indicates that the Police Complaints Authority currently has 2100 cases before it of which one in five are over 2 years old. The reason we raise this as a concern is that that number has continued to grow. It has grown dramatically in the last few years. I would like the Government to know what impact that has. The fact that there are more police complaints coming through that they are taking longer to be dealt with and that the caseload is larger than it has been before has a dramatic impact not only on the well-being of those who make the complaints but also on the police officers involved. 
It is to be expected that we would get an explanation from the Government that these cases are all being held over because we are waiting for the coroner to deal with this or some other agency to deal with that. But the fact is when there are 2100 cases they are not all sitting before the coroner or some other authority. In fact the number of cases sitting before the coroner could be counted on two hands. There is a real issue with the amount of time it is taking to get police complaints dealt with. I hope that with the new Independent Police Complaints Authority cases will be dealt with more quickly than they are at the moment. There has been an increase in the number of cases that we are seeing. One in five cases has been with the authority for more than 2 years. One in 10 cases has been there for over 3 or 3½ years. 
It is a long time not only for the complaints but for the police officers involved. I have had correspondence from a number of police officers who are the subject of Police Complaints Authority investigations. Although those investigations are important and must be dealt with fairly for the complainant we should also be aware of the cost they have on the well-being of the men and women of the New Zealand Police who put their lives on the line every day in the protection of our safety. 
The second point we raise is the principle—[ 
Interruption 
] Paint is being stripped somewhere around the countryside with that rather silly little interjection from the soon-to-be former member for Whanganui. 
Jill Pettis 
: I don’t think so Sunshine. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I do think so and I am privy to some information that would suggest that that is absolutely the case. 
The second point is the importance of expanding the Independent Police Complaints Authority to include prison complaints. I think the argument that the Minister of Justice put forward of the need for the public to feel confident also applies—[ 
Interruption 
] I am absolutely awake when I say this unlike the Associate Minister of Education who came to Parliament and slept through his own Prime Minister’s questions— 
Hon David Benson-Pope 
: Don’t be ridiculous. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I will say what is ridiculous: the Associate Minister of Education sleeping through question time. What does the House make of that? That was embarrassing was it not? 
National says let us have an independent police and prisons complaint service whereby we bring the division that deals with the complaints of inmates out of the Department of Corrections. Having talked to investigators it is apparent that the skills required to deal with prison complaints are transferable to deal with police complaints and similarly the reverse is true of the skills required for police complaint investigations. 
National supports this legislation. It is our intention when we are in Government to amend the legislation to incorporate the prisons complaints service. We look to the Government to ensure that there is sufficient resourcing of the new Independent Police Complaints Authority to reduce the number of outstanding cases and to reduce the age of the cases that are outstanding because that is the only way to deal fairly with the complainants and the police officers.