Cosgrove Clayton: Justices of the Peace Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Cosgrove Clayton: Justices of the Peace Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:638;Page:8637] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Associate Minister of Justice) 
: 
 I move  
That the Justices of the Peace Amendment Bill be now read a third time 
. The Justices of the Peace Amendment Bill is designed to modernise the legislation governing a community voluntary institution for the first time in more than 50 years. The Government introduced the bill to reform three main areas: training discipline and retirement. I believe that the quality and consistency of the work carried out by justices of the peace or JPs will be improved through the introduction of compulsory training prior to appointment specialised training for all justices who wish to exercise a judicial function and the robust disciplinary provisions introduced by the bill. The bill’s measures also indicate the high standard of behaviour that is expected of JPs as respected members of our community. 
The disciplinary provisions in the current Justices of the Peace Act allow for a JP to be removed from office in only the most serious of cases. The bill enhances the disciplinary regime by specifying the grounds for removal or suspension of a JP and the process that must be followed to secure a removal or suspension. The lower-level disciplinary measures in the bill also ensure that JPs who are not performing to an acceptable level can receive an official written rebuke and can be required to attend suitable training or receive counselling. I believe that specifying the disciplinary regime in the legislation provides for a consistent fair and transparent basis for decision making. 
Justices of the peace have a proud tradition in our country of voluntary service in the community. This Government and I believe all members of this House commend JPs throughout New Zealand for their work and their commitment. As a way of recognising the significant amount of time and effort of long-serving justices the bill allows former JPs who have served for at least 10 years to apply to use the title “JP (retired)”. The professional body representing around two-thirds of New Zealand’s justices of the peace the Royal Federation of New Zealand Justices’ Associations has a keen interest in the progression of this bill and has been consulted throughout the bill’s development. 
At this point I want to pay some special tributes. In respect of the history I want to thank the former justice sector Ministers and the current Minister for Courts but firstly I thank the Hon Paul Swain—who I am advised is in great demand internationally for his thoughts on this bill and other things—who kicked the ball off in terms of getting this legislation off the shelf into shape and progressing through by means of consultation with the stakeholders and the public. I also thank the Minister for Courts and the previous Associate Minister of Justice Rick Barker who began much of the work on this legislation. As Associate Minister of Justice I have had the privilege to bring the bill into the House and conclude it. That is my small contribution to that process. 
I also thank other members of the House including Simon Power and his team from the Opposition benches who raised some interesting questions as the Law and Order Committee proceedings went through. To be fair I think that the select committee headed by my colleague Martin Gallagher— 
Simon Power 
: Formidable! 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: My colleague Simon Power calls Martin Gallagher formidable and I agree. As a justice of the peace himself and chair of the Law and Order Committee Martin Gallagher pushed this bill through and I believe the committee has given a product to this House that is superb. 
This bill has been supported by the royal federation which represents all associations. I specifically thank the immediate past president of the Royal Federation of New Zealand Justices’ Associations Gavin Kerr who was the president throughout last year. He really provided some momentum and assistance to me as the then new Associate Minister of Justice to get this legislation off the ground. He is an innovator. He was recently honoured by our Queen and it was a well-deserved honour. He has made a huge contribution to his community and in taking on the role of president he has demonstrated that he is an innovator a moderniser and a person who wants to further professionalise the office of justice of the peace. He is out there promoting it every day trying to recruit younger people trying to encourage senior JP members to continue in their mentoring role and trying to get more diverse members of our community to take up the office of JP so that they can assist communities. 
I also want to acknowledge the work alongside that of Gavin of the current president of the royal federation John Falconer who took office recently and thank him for his commitment. I also acknowledge the long-serving royal federation registrar Alan Hart who provides all the administrative support. He has been superb in working with the Ministry of Justice and assisting them as we have gone through. 
Running alongside this as I said at the Committee stage is a stocktake document that we are mailing out literally today. Members of the select committee will know that the document which has been agreed to and promoted by the royal federation and contributed to by the ministry seeks to line up a lot of the so-called customs and practices that do vary—some very positively and some very negatively—from association to association. I acknowledge the Hon Paul Swain again who very recently with interactions with his own local association as a good committed member trying to assist it has provided some great input into that stocktake document. The objective of that document is quite simple: to get some best-practice functions and ideas and to standardise them right across the country to take the best ones and institutionalise them and to remove the worst ones—and there are one or two. 
It is noteworthy to reiterate what I said last night though. This bill is about professionalising JPs but in doing so the reforms in this legislation do not confer a power of veto or a vetting capability on JPs’ associations. It is right and proper that members of Parliament continue to nominate justices of the peace. It is right and proper that the Minister of the day of whatever political shade continues to have the ultimate right through the Governor-General obviously to appoint. That is how it should be and that is how it will remain. 
It just remains for me to again thank all members for their support. This is one of the few times in this Parliament where we can genuinely stand up and say we all agree that we are humbled by the contribution made by voluntary members of the community like justices of the peace. They are part of our judiciary they fulfil a huge role and also bluntly they save us a heck of a lot of money. If we did not have 10500 JPs out there signing search warrants or witnessing documents for students travel documents for people passports or whatever somebody would have to do that and it would probably be incumbent on the taxpayer to stump up and pay for that facility to be provided. 
We now move on. I went to the office of the royal federation last week and Alan Hart who was present presented me with a cake. On the cake was the number 50. I said to Alan that I knew I looked past my years but I had not reached that milestone—like you have Mr Assistant Speaker. The cake was to mark the 50 years that the royal federation has been asking for a reform bill to come into the House. So it has been a long time coming. 
Simon Power 
: I must have mislaid my invitation. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I saved a bit of cake for you. This is a great day for JPs. I am especially indebted to the ones in my electorate of Waimakariri for the huge job they do and I know all members of Parliament are also indebted. I commend the bill to the House and I look forward to its passage and enactment.