Barker Rick: Coroners Bill — First Reading 
Barker Rick: Coroners Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:622;Page:18087] 
Hon RICK BARKER (Minister for Courts) 
 on behalf of the 
 Associate Minister for Courts 
: I move  
That the Coroners Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I will move that the bill be referred to the Justice and Electoral Committee. The Coroners Bill repeals and replaces the Coroners Act of 1988. The bill will enhance public confidence in the coronial system by improving the quality of coroners’ investigations and decision making and by taking better account of the diverse needs of families. Coroners inquire into certain deaths in order to uphold human rights. Coroners establish so far as is possible the causes and circumstances of death in cases of sudden or explained deaths and of death in other special circumstances such as where a person was in the care of the State. Balancing the needs of families with the need to understand the causes and circumstances of deaths can be difficult. 
Although the Act included provisions to address cultural sensitivities those provisions have sometimes not had their intended effect. The Law Commission became aware of the concerns about coronial practice while consulting with Maori on its review of succession law and decided to undertake a separate project on the Act. Its report on the Act was tabled in August 2000. Many submitters to the Law Commission said that despite the high ability and sensitivity of many people involved in the coronial process the current system was haphazard patchy unsystematic and inadequate. That was partly due to having more than 70 coroners with different levels of qualifications and experience and no training programmes. Coroners mostly work part-time often in isolation and have limited administrative support. The Law Commission highlighted a perception that the coronial system did not take enough account of cultural beliefs and values especially those of Maori. There were also reports of some coronial practices being insensitive to the needs of families. 
A review of the Act based on the Law Commission’s recommendations contained a number of objectives. Those included enhancing public confidence in the integrity and independence of the system taking better account of families’ diverse cultural and spiritual needs maintaining the need to understand the causes and circumstances of deaths in an accurate and a timely way and promoting cooperation between coroners and other authorities also involved in the investigation of deaths. This bill draws on both the Law Commission’s recommendations and the Government’s review. The key elements of the bill are establishing the office of Chief Coroner moving to a smaller number of mostly full-time legally qualified coroners ensuring families are notified at significant steps of the coronial process introducing a specific regime for the retention and release of body parts and bodily samples and enhancing the inquiry and inquest processes. I will now talk about those elements in greater detail. 
The appointment of a chief coroner was the key recommendation of the Law Commission and it has been widely supported. The chief coroner will help to manage workloads improve coordination within the coronial process provide support to coroners and undertake a wider liaison role. There will be fewer coroners in the new system but they will be well trained and work closely together to deliver a consistent high-quality standard of practice. At present most coroners deal with only a small number of cases a year. Moving to a system of largely full-time positions will enable coroners to develop greater expertise and will improve the timeliness of inquests and the release of coronial findings. Full-time coroners will also have more time to undertake public education and develop closer relationships with other investigating authorities. 
The definition of “immediate family” has been broadened in order to better take into account the diverse family relationships in New Zealand. The coroner will be required to notify the family of significant matters in the coronial process such as the post-mortem examination the opening of an inquiry and the date time and location of an inquest. A family will be able to appoint a representative to liaise with the coroner on its behalf. With the coroner’s authorisation the family may be able to view touch or remain near the body although the coroner may impose some conditions such as requiring a police officer to be present. In certain cases the family will be able to object to a post-mortem and may also be able to have a doctor registered nurse or funeral director present at the post-mortem. 
The current Act is silent about the retention of body parts. Under this bill a coroner can authorise the retention of any body part or tissue that a pathologist considers to be necessary for a post-mortem but for no other purpose without the consent of the family. The coroner will be required to inform the family about the reasons for and the duration of the retention of body parts. Families will be able to specify how retained body parts are to be dealt with when they are no longer required. 
The bill includes new evidence provisions around inquiries and inquests. Coroners will be able to require people to provide specified information to assist their inquiry. If necessary a District Court judge will be able to issue a warrant for the police to search for that information. That will ensure that people cannot obstruct coroners by withholding information. Family members will continue to be able to attend inquests and to ask questions about a death and the events leading up to it. The provisions allowing a coroner to prohibit information from being made public in the interests of justice decency or public order have been extended to include personal privacy. The restrictions on the publication of self-inflicted deaths have been retained. However coroners may allow particulars about a self-inflicted death to be made public where that is unlikely to be detrimental to public safety. 
The provisions I have outlined today will make a major improvement in the coronial system. I would like to pay tribute to the many coroners who have served our communities over the years. Coroners deal with many of the saddest and most difficult aspects of death. I am confident that coroners appointed under the new Act will continue to show the dedication of their predecessors and that the new Act will enhance public confidence in the coronial system. I commend the bill to the House.