Nash Stuart; Mallard TrevorSTUART NASH (Labour—Napier): I stand to agree with the honourable Minister Mark Mitchell. I think Judge Colin Doherty is an excellent appointment. Everyone I have spoken to about His Honour speaks very very highly of him as a very experienced judge a man of honour and integrity and I think he will do a fantastic job as the Minister just mentioned. He fills very big shoes with Sir David Carruthers who has done a very very good job in leading this most important authority.What is the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA)? Well it exists so that people have trust that complaints about and incidents involving Police conduct and any practice policy or procedure will be fairly and impartially investigated or reviewed and any recommendations made and implemented will result in improved Police performance." The authority also provides reassurances for the public and Parliament that policing standards are of the highest calibre through impartial and independent oversight. The IPCA exists as an independent Crown entity under Part 3 of schedule 1 of the Crown Entities Act 2004 and it is established under the Independent Police Conduct Authority Act 1988. The functions defined by the Act are as follows in the authority's statement of intent: "Receiving and taking action on complaints alleging misconduct or neglect of duty by any employee of the Police or concerning any practice policy or procedure of the Police." Also "… investigating incidents involving death or serious bodily harm caused or appearing to have been caused by an employee of the Police acting in the execution of their duty." where it is satisfied there are reasonable grounds in the public interest to do so. The authority also has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Police and this covers instances that may present reputational risk to the police including serious offending by the police officer or police actions that may have an element of corruption. Under the MOU cases are referred by the police to the authority even though there may not have been a complaint from a member of the public or there may not have been a death or serious bodily harm. Under section 17 of the Act when the authority receives a complaint it can investigate the complaint itself; refer it to the police for investigation under the authority's oversight which may include direction of the police investigation proactive oversight or a review ordered upon completion of the police investigation; defer the action; or actually take no action.What I would say at this point in time when the police are I believe very under-resourced—we are hearing from the members of the public about a very reactive response to crime at the moment. As Labour's police spokesperson I am getting more and more complaints about the police which I am referring to the Independent Police Conduct Authority. If I have a look at the work of the authority what it does is it divides complaints into five different categories. The first one is an independent investigation by the authority and last year there were 73 of these. The second category is referral to police for investigation with active oversight by the authority and a full review of the file by the authority at the conclusion of the investigation. This is category two and in the last financial year there were 140 of these. Category three is referral to police for investigation with a full review of the file by the authority at its conclusion. There were 65 of these. Category four is referral to police for resolution by mutual agreement by the complainant—there were 794 of these. Then category five is complaint declined by the authority and there were 1264 of these.So overall the Independent Police Conduct Authority dealt with 2441 complaints so this is not an easy job. There is a lot of work involved in it and it does require a man of exceptional integrity because of the very nature of the confidence that the public must have in the police and the processes if they are actually making a complaint against the police. This is why I conclude by saying that Judge Colin Doherty is the perfect man for this position. I wish him well and I look forward to seeing him in front of our select committee but also I would like to say once again that Judge Carruthers did a very good job in this role. He has left the Independent Police Conduct Authority in good stead. Thank you very much.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): And I am sure your benchmate will now talk to you."