Clendon David: Appointments — Independent Police Conduct Authority 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Clendon David: Appointments — Independent Police Conduct Authority 
[Sitting date: 05 April 2012. Volume:679;Page:1742. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DAVID CLENDON (Green) 
: 
 Kia ora koutou. I am pleased to take a brief call to support this recommendation that Judge Sir David Carruthers be appointed chair of the Independent Police Conduct Authority. As the Minister of Justice has pointed out even a very brief resumé analysis of Sir David’s career indicates he is an entirely appropriate appointment to what is a very demanding and a very important role and we are confident that he will perpetuate the integrity and the competence that have been displayed by his predecessor Justice Goddard. Justice Goddard was the incumbent head of the former Police Complaints Authority at the time legislation was passed that restructured and re-formed that body into the Independent Police Conduct Authority that we know today. 
The Greens are particularly pleased that the Independent Police Conduct Authority has demonstrated its worth given that the party and in particular our former MP Nandor Tanczos at the time was a very powerful advocate for the establishment of a genuinely independent authority. It was very clear in the early 2000s if not earlier that the existing model was functionally and structurally simply not up to the task of meeting people’s reasonable expectations of seeing good well-organised and well-conducted investigations into the actions and incidents concerning the police and the use of their powers. 
I believe that the Independent Police Conduct Authority has delivered on the expectation that it would improve the depth and quality of investigations remembering of course that it is called in only for the most serious matters where there are significant issues of public interest to be considered. I think it is to the credit of the Independent Police Conduct Authority under the leadership of Justice Goddard that it has on occasion exonerated police actions and has found no blame attached to police actions or decisions made in particular incidents and on other occasions has been very forthright in highlighting any shortcomings in police actions. I recall a speech made by Nandor Tanczos at the time along the lines that the Independent Police Conduct Authority was to be a watchdog. There was an expectation that it would occasionally bare its teeth and I believe that the Independent Police Conduct Authority has not resiled from doing that on occasion but also has offered very useful and clear recommendations about changes. And it is evident that those recommendations have almost invariably been adopted and taken up. It has been a successful organisation and I am sure that under Sir David’s leadership it will continue to be so. 
I would like to take this opportunity just to comment on one issue of the practice of the Independent Police Conduct Authority. With all due respect I would like to encourage the incoming chair and his board to consider change in a particular practice of the board to date. It has always been the practice of the board that the investigative teams it appoints to undertake investigations are drawn from police forces both in New Zealand and overseas typically from Commonwealth countries. It is entirely sensible of course that the investigative officers do have significant depth and breadth of experience in policing matters including firsthand policing experience. I would argue however that the work of the authority could be improved and enriched—enhanced in fact—if the investigative teams also routinely included people from professions from experiences from backgrounds and from disciplines other than front-line policing. 
Police Commissioner Marshall has recently talked of effecting change in the culture of the New Zealand Police particularly in relation to this new strategy around Prevention First which—I would comment as an aside—is an approach that the Greens wholeheartedly support. This talk of culture from the commissioner recognises that police forces in common with every other workforce and with every other workplace do have a particular culture and an underlying set of shared assumptions of beliefs of values and of principles. Given the uniqueness of police work we think it is fair to suggest that the culture of police forces in countries from which our investigating officers have been drawn is sufficiently similar that they would have more points of similarity than they would have points of difference. Although that is undoubtedly a strength that enables a high degree of compatibility it also potentially is a weakness. We believe that bringing into these teams individuals who come from different cultures and with different cultural frameworks would enhance and broaden the capacity of the authority to do a very broad and deep analysis of incidents to bring in different sets of eyes and different perspectives from those who have come from a policing culture. 
Having made those remarks I will finish by simply again reiterating that we commend Justice Goddard on a job very well done and we wish the incoming Sir David Carruthers every success. We are sure that he will continue the work that has been begun by his predecessor and will bring considerable regard to the authority. Thank you.