Macindoe Tim: Register of Pecuniary Interests of Judges Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Macindoe Tim: Register of Pecuniary Interests of Judges Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 27 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3457. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West) 
: 
 The Register of Pecuniary Interests of Judges Bill clearly raises important issues. However it seems from the Law Commission’s report published in February and the submissions that the commission has received on that document to date that there is some doubt about whether this is an effective response to these natural and legitimate concerns or indeed as others who have spoken tonight have indicated an appropriate one. 
I understand that the legal community is not broadly in favour of a register. One matter identified by members of the legal profession is that the bill does not address what they see as the more relevant issue of the actual process for applying the very well-settled laws relating to recusal in practice. This bill would not overcome the issue identified by both the profession and the bench which is the absence of guidance on how to apply the recusal rules consistently. Those rules determine whether a judge should remove him or herself from a case. The bill instead is directed toward identifying the possible conflicts in advance by listing them publicly. 
It is worth noting that there are a number of very difficult technical issues around the construction of such a register if it is to achieve the goal of pre-emptively identifying possible conflicts. This is especially the case where the nature of the financial relationship between parties is not entirely straightforward or apparent on the face of ownership records. That was the situation in the  
Saxmere 
 case which most recently brought this issue into the public eye as Mr Goff has just mentioned. 
This Government in this matter led by the Minister of Justice has been taking a close look at the justice sector as a whole. That process includes a very substantial rewriting of the Judicature Act which is the statute that governs the courts. This is a significant piece of work that involves looking at the whole variety of issues relating to the courts. That will include the law of contempt of court and the issue of vexatious litigants which my colleague the member for New Plymouth mentioned a moment ago. It also includes the structure of the courts and examining whether there should be greater specialisation of judges in order to deal with specific areas such as commercial cases. These reforms represent a rational and systematic approach to reviewing the way our courts operate. The last thing the judiciary or the public needs is a continuation of the piecemeal reform and legislative field surgery that has sometimes prevented careful and constructive consideration of these issues. 
No one would argue that this bill’s aim of ensuring public confidence in the judiciary is not admirable. The bill has been offered up to the House by a very thoughtful member Dr Kennedy Graham and it deserves consideration by us and by a select committee. These issues are important and a full airing of them can only assist in whatever steps this House takes towards ensuring public confidence in the justice system in general. Therefore National is supporting this bill going to the Justice and Electoral Committee so that we may carefully consider the issue. However we expect that any further progress will be part of the ongoing review of the courts that is currently in progress.