Tisch Lindsay: Visiting Forces Bill — First Reading 
Tisch Lindsay: Visiting Forces Bill — First Reading 
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LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 National will support this bill. We think it is timely that this sort of legislation has come in that brings us into the international arena. If we were to look at the background to why this bill has come about we would see that the Visiting Forces Act of 1939 applied only to forces of designated Commonwealth countries and dealt with a number of limited matters. The Act conferred only disciplinary jurisdiction and did not cover things like resolving issues of shared jurisdiction; providing for members of visiting forces who commit offences in New Zealand to be arrested and brought before a court in the usual way pending resolution of the question of jurisdiction—which country was to have jurisdiction—and providing effective safeguards against double jeopardy. So there were a number of issues that the 1939 Act did not apply to and that has led to inconsistencies with the way that other jurisdictions and legislation around the world now operate. 
If we look at international practice we can see that this bill brings us into line with that practice. The United Kingdom passed a Visiting Forces Act in 1952 to implement arrangements under the NATO status of forces arrangement and as the Minister of Police mentioned on 29 October 1998 the New Zealand Government signed an agreement with Australia with the intention of amending the law to bring it into line with international law and practice. However the agreement was not ratified and a number of issues came from that; that now leads us to this bill that we are debating this afternoon and that National supports. 
Probably the major provisions in this bill are those relating to the command control and administration of the visiting force but I want to spend a brief time on the crux of what this bill is about—that is the provision that criminal and disciplinary jurisdiction is subject to agreement. Clause 8l provides that “(1) To the extent permitted by the applicable agreement the service authorities of a visiting force may within New Zealand exercise over members of the visiting force members of its civilian component and its dependants all criminal and disciplinary jurisdiction conferred on them by the law of the sending State.” These rights include the power to arrest the power to detain and the power to search any person falling under those categories. The bill also allows for powers to enter and search any ship aircraft vehicle or premises belonging to or occupied by the visiting force or such person as mentioned earlier in the bill. It also allows the service authorities to seize or take possession of any property article or thing found in the possession of such a person or on a ship aircraft vehicle or premises. 
So what the legislation does is quite wide ranging. As I said earlier it brings us into line with international practice. There are some exceptions and I will just mention what they are because they are significant and we do not want people to think that this is blanket coverage of all the provisions that we might expect. The sentencing authorities of a visiting force must not impose or carry out a sentence of death in New Zealand. As we do not have the death penalty that of course falls in line with what we would expect. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: We could really! 
LINDSAY TISCH 
: We probably could change it. There must be no act done in New Zealand that would if committed by a member of the armed forces of New Zealand constitute an offence against the Crimes of Torture Act. I was unfamiliar with the Crimes of Torture Act of 1989 but that is certainly an exemption. 
There are a couple of provisions that require the Attorney-General to have input into how these matters proceed. Two of those provisions are that the service authorities of a visiting force must not exercise a power to enter and search any ship aircraft vehicle or premises belonging to or occupied by a visiting force or person—as I mentioned earlier—if the ship aircraft etc. is also occupied by a person who is here other than as a member of a visiting force a member of its civilian component or a dependant 
and the service authorities of a visiting force must not exercise a power to seize or take possession of any property article or thing found in the possession of any such person. Service authorities may request the Attorney-General to obtain the issue of a search warrant under section 59 if those matters are to be proceeded with. 
The Attorney-General will also have input into the criminal proceedings which is a major provision of this bill. Criminal proceedings may be instituted against a member of a visiting force a member of its civilian component or a dependant who is subject to the service law of the sending State. But these proceedings are stayed and must not proceed without the consent of the Attorney-General. 
There are a number of other provisions that I will not go through. It is significant that we have this legislation. National will support this bill going to the select committee.