Finlayson Christopher: Coroners Bill — In Committee 
Finlayson Christopher: Coroners Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:631;Page:2974] 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) 
: 
 As my colleagues have said the National Opposition supports the bill. I will focus on a number of aspects of Part 1 which deals with the preliminary provisions. I will not dwell on the purpose of the Act or the coroner’s role but I do want to say something about clause 4A which was inserted by the Justice and Electoral Committee after hearing a number of submissions from people. 
Clause 4A provides that coroners must perform their duties without delay as far as it is consistent with justice and practicable to do so. The members of the committee in suggesting that the clause be inserted in the bill were heavily influenced by submissions from various members of the public who had had to wait on some occasions for a number of years before the result of a coronial inquiry was released. 
 Dr Worth has referred to the problems and the stress faced when people die and are buried or cremated and then families find that their bodily parts or vials of substance are referred to them some months later. That is one aspect of the stress. Another aspect is having to deal with coronial inquiries that go on interminably and are never dealt with finally because it takes so long for part-time coroners to deal with particular coronial inquiries. So clause 4A is an extremely important clause and it will go a long way towards ensuring that all coroners are aware of their obligations to deal with things as far as justice permits in as speedy a manner as possible. 
In order to give effect to that clause and to the general Act clause 5 introduces a new concept in New Zealand law—that of the office of chief coroner. Rather than having 50 or 60 part-time coroners doing their own thing around the country—two in Auckland on a full-time basis and the rest spread throughout the country and contributing to various degrees—there will be a chief coroner who will be responsible for overseeing the administration of the coronial system in New Zealand and in particular for providing leadership and guidance to other coroners to ensure that investigations are done properly and that they are done quickly. The chief coroner will also be empowered as clause 5 states to issue practice notes that will provide detailed guidance to coroners on the way they can discharge their functions. The other key point about the chief coroner is that he or she will be responsible for allocating resources so that coronial inquests can be conducted in the right part of the country at the right time rather than people having to travel hundreds of miles to an inquest. 
So those are the two key innovations in this part of the bill. They are good innovations because the office of chief coroner will become I am sure a very important one in the State and it will ensure that coronial inquiries are conducted properly that coronial investigations maintain a uniform standard throughout the country and importantly that they are conducted quickly. As I said one of the worst problems faced by people who have had to deal with the coronial system has been that of delay but by setting up the regime of chief coroner and with some of the other aspects of the bill—which I will come to during the debate on later parts—I am sure it will be a good system; one that will be welcomed by the public of New Zealand and one that will work very well.