Mark Ron: Appointments — Deputy Police Complaints Authority 
Mark Ron: Appointments — Deputy Police Complaints Authority 
[Volume:638;Page:8583] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise to take a brief call on behalf of New Zealand First to endorse as all other previous speakers have the appointment of Judge Michael Henry Walkinton Lance as deputy to the Police Complaints Authority. We note that the appointment is only for a 1-year term. Although explanations have been given for that our view in New Zealand First of the Police Complaints Authority office is that it is seriously under-resourced it is seriously under-staffed and it does not have the investigative capabilities that are required to give confidence to the investigations and the reviews that it conducts. In time—in fact in a short time—we would see a distinct need to go with and even be bolder than the recommendations of Justice Goddard in the strengthening and boosting of the Police Complaints Authority and in having the appointment of such people as Judge Michael Lance on a longer-term basis. 
I will just cover a couple of things. The honourable member Nandor Tanczos has espoused the Greens’ position in respect of the Police Complaints Authority quite well—in fact I heard a good lump of it while I was at my desk. I say that New Zealand First does not just support that view but endorses it and it would go further. 
With the release of the  
Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct 
 today—and I gather that many members of this House will still be wading their way through that document—most of us have read the executive summary and the recommendations in particular the 12 recommendations that pertain to the Police Complaints Authority and most of us would endorse those. New Zealand First is of the view that given the seriousness of these allegations and the serious degradation of police standards during a particular era that will forever be a blot on the history of this nation in terms of law enforcement there is a need to go further than has been recommended. 
I can say to the House that in some discussions held already via the select committee process we have had the opportunity to talk with Justice Goddard and to test the views of members of Parliament as to the possibility of making the office of the Police Complaints Authority into a commission affording it the status of an Office of Parliament and making the appointment of Commissioner for the Police Complaints Authority an Officer of Parliament. The reason we have come to this conclusion is that there is nothing more valuable in the maintenance of law and order and of a civil society than a completely reliable corruption-free law enforcement arm—that is the police. 
The powers of the police the judiciary and Parliament are all separated for very good reasons. That separation of powers gives us the democracy and the freedom that we enjoy as a nation and as citizens of this nation. But of course if one of those pillars of our society is undermined in any way or if the public should lose confidence in one of those pillars then we run the serious risk of degrading the quality of our democracy and thereby undermining those things that are fundamental to our having a civil society. When we degrade the institutions to that stage we can hardly be surprised when we find we have anarchy lawlessness and vigilantes operating freely on our streets. That is something that no one wants. The guarantee that citizens will not take the law into their own hands and that citizens will trust in the system comes from the confidence that they have in that system and in all the processes and procedures by which they might see citizens prosecuted or their wrongs redressed. 
It seems to us in New Zealand First that we need to give the office of the Police Complaints Authority a higher level of status. We need to give it a higher level of authority. We need to make it absolutely patently clear that it is an autonomous body that it stands alone and that it is answerable to nobody—specifically not to the Ministry of Justice and in particular not to the police. It is most important that justice not only be done but also that it be seen to be done and the New Zealand nature would require that it is seen to be done fairly and honestly. 
We hate to say it but this report we believe gives us a new opportunity to review the current systems and structures we have and to ask ourselves a simple question: is this as good as it could be or should be? We would ask the House and the parties present here today to consider our suggestion. I most definitely have listened on a number of occasions to the suggestion from Nandor Tanczos and the Green Party about combining the prison inspectorate and the Police Complaints Authority into one body. We would say that the Police Complaints Authority needs to be an Office of Parliament it needs to be answerable to Parliament only it needs to be resourced and it needs to have the investigative capacity to be able to take inquiries or complaints from a first-principles basis—that is not simply from a basis of reviewing an investigation done by the police into themselves but from a basis of examining the quality of the investigation under review and of determining whether they see the need to go back to first principles and reinvestigate the entire case. 
I can also say that this is not a request we make purely on the basis of what is contained in this report in respect of the totally unacceptable conduct of certain police officers around this country over the last 20-odd years. Our position also comes about as a result of our concern over the way in which police officers are disciplined. It is interesting to again note the comments and recommendations from Dame Margaret Bazley as to how the disciplinary procedures and methods operating within the police force have become archaic and outdated and need restructuring. 
It seems to me that this is borne out when I look at a couple of cases in particular that I know have been before the Police Complaints Authority. One of those cases which involves a police officer down in Christchurch is still before the authority. The police officer in question has been suspended for coming up to 3 years despite his assertions that he was innocent of the charges brought against him by the police and despite the fact that he ended up in court and that Judge Erber threw the case out and then set about lambasting the police investigative procedures. That in itself tells us in New Zealand First that not only should we be holding police accountable for actions or conduct that is clearly wrong illegal and inappropriate but also we should be providing a system and mechanism by which officers who are accused have those accusations dealt with swiftly speedily and in accordance with what we consider to be acceptable processes of justice. To have a police officer’s family in Kaiapoi hung out to dry for 3 years is totally absolutely unacceptable. To find that the judge as a consequence has thrown the case out is even more unacceptable. It brings into question the police hierarchy in Canterbury itself and its own systems and procedures. 
I think that the only way we can guarantee a fair go for victims for those who are alleged to have committed crimes and for the police themselves is for that responsibility to be vested in the Police Complaints Authority and for the authority to be given the powers and resources to enable it to investigate thoroughly all allegations brought to it from the basis of first principles. We would again say that we will be having discussions with the Minister about a proposal to have this office be made an Office of Parliament. 
Motion agreed to.