Katene Rahui: Immigration Act 2009 Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Katene Rahui: Immigration Act 2009 Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:661;Page:10101] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 We also extend our congratulations to the Minister of Immigration and his wife on their new arrival. We trust that all permits are in order and that nothing went wrong with the delivery. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The terms “no guts” and “no courage” have been ruled out thousands of times in this House but that member sitting across the way from me Clayton Cosgrove has just blatantly accused our colleague Peter Garrett of having no guts and no courage. 
Hon Members 
: David Garrett. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Oh David Garrett not Peter Garrett. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Firstly I do not believe we have a member in the House called Peter Garrett. I think he resides in the Australian Parliament. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: I want members to reflect a moment. This House will get out of order when we have personal reflections and I want to say— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Yeah. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: —excuse me I am ruling here; I do not want any correspondence on the matter—that personal reflections cause disorder. When reflections are made whether of a general nature or a particular nature offence is taken to them. Just as it is out of order to refer to an individual as having particular characteristics for example being controlled it is out of order to refer to a party in the same manner. When a member makes reflections to someone on the other side it can cause offence and people will react to it. I say to members of this House that personal reflections and derogatory comments are unacceptable in general. 
During the particular point raised by Mr Tau Henare I was busy looking at the  
Speakers’ Rulings 
 to speak about this matter and I did not hear the interjections so I could not take offence at them. I say further to Mr Henare that a member cannot take offence on behalf of someone else; the other person has to do that. But the member’s point is well made. I say to members that if they play it with a straight bat and do not make personal reflections against individuals or others in general this House will be much better. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I did not take offence on behalf of anybody; I took offence. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. There are two sets of Standing Orders in this House. There are the written  
Standing Orders 
 and as somebody else said—a venerable parliamentarian—there are the unwritten standing orders. I simply make the observation to you that for personal reflections—which I did indeed make and I again withdraw and apologise; Mr Henare was absolutely correct—there is also another convention in this House. When a member of Parliament brings one’s spouse partner or family into a debate that is generally observed by both sides of the House as a no go area. That is under an unwritten standing order. I simply observe to you Mr Assistant Speaker that in my view that member made some very unparliamentary remarks about members in here. I am not asking you to take action because I suspect that that is in the unwritten standing orders but it is called a principle which perhaps that member knows very little about. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: I will just say to the member that that was in some ways helpful but in other ways it was unhelpful. If the member had reflected on what I had said he would know that it was almost exactly the same point for point so it was unnecessary to relitigate. But I guess the member felt he had to get something off his chest. 
Having said that I think we should get back to business. We are here to debate. I know that the House is sitting under urgency and that it is a bit late but we should keep ourselves under a bit of a short rein and debate the issue. I ask members to play the ball not the player. 
RAHUI KATENE 
: It made for fascinating timing to receive the observations of the 98th session of the United Nations Human Rights Committee in New York just as the Immigration Act 2009 Amendment Bill was being primed for introduction. Two aspects of that report in particular are relevant for this bill. The first is the recommendation to consider extending the mandate of the Human Rights Commission so that it can receive complaints of human rights violations relating to immigration laws policies and practices and report on them. The second is that New Zealand should continue its efforts to review the status of the Treaty of Waitangi within the domestic legal system including the desirability of incorporating the Treaty into domestic law in consultation with Maori groups. 
The first recommendation is of particular relevance to the legislation we are debating today—that is legislation that is about appointing members including the chair to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal. In effect this legislation is about one section of the Immigration Act section 474. The Immigration Act 2009 was assented to on 16 November 2009. Within the parameters of this legislation section 474 of the Act authorised certain persons to exercise specific powers and functions before the relevant provisions of the Act had begun. Yet when it came down to the wire section 474 was inadvertently omitted from the commencement provision. Today then we are facing legislation that will require section 474 to be brought into force as soon as possible to allow the necessary implementation work to be done. In real terms the bill will bring section 474 into force on the day after the date on which it receives the Royal assent. 
In this way then the bill appears to be purely administrative in nature. In fact it appears to be purely a response to an anomaly that was not identified at the time whereby the powers and functions of the appointed chair and the Governor-General were overlooked. The bill basically corrects that anomaly. The powers of the Governor-General addressed in this bill are related to the capacity to appoint a chair to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal. The powers also enable the Governor-General to appoint members to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal which will decide all immigration deportation refugee and protection appeals in New Zealand. Clearly that is an area of considerable sensitivity and controversy. The bill specifies the powers and functions that may be exercised early including the directions for the education training and professional development of members of the tribunal. Another part of the legislation establishes a process by which the chair of the tribunal can develop a code of conduct for members of the tribunal. In accordance with the recommendation from the United Nations Human Rights Committee this would enable complaints of human rights violations that might emerge from members of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal and that are related to immigration laws policies and practices to be heard and reported. 
The second recommendation of the United Nations Human Rights Committee is about reviewing the status of the Treaty of Waitangi within the domestic legal system. Even though we had considered that this bill might provide an opportunity to incorporate the Treaty into the bill it appears that the bill does not provide the process to make overarching effects to immigration and as such we have been advised that any amendment we might make to bring the Treaty into this legislation will not affect how the Immigration and Protection Tribunal will make its decisions. Notwithstanding these issues the Maori Party will support this bill which we see basically as a means of improving the administration around immigration policy implementation. The bill also provides us with an excellent opportunity to advertise our keen interest in putting forward an eminently suitable applicant to be appointed to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal. We will support this bill.