Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): I rise in support of the Remuneration Authority Legislation Bill on behalf of the National Party. Fundamentally this bill is a simple change which will give an added layer of political neutrality to the setting of fees for judicial officers. The Remuneration Authority is seen as the fair and independent body who should be tasked with determining remuneration for these judicial officers. Judicial independence from the Government is important as it enhances public confidence in the operation of the law. If a Government could negatively influence the salaries of judges it could potentially use this to influence the decisions of judges in its own favour so this bill is a good one.It is also an omnibus bill as one of my colleagues mentioned earlier. That means that it amends more than one Act and in this case it amends those Acts so that the Remuneration Authority can recognise the judicial nature of a number of positions and set their fees. Previously those fees were set by the Cabinet Fees Framework and they will now under this bill be set by the Remuneration Authority. Those positions which will now come under this Act will be the chairperson and deputy chairperson of the Human Rights Review Tribunal community magistrates of the District Court environment commissioners and deputy environment commissioners of the Environment Court members and deputy chairs of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal referees of the disputes tribunal and tenancy adjudicators of the Tenancy Tribunal.The Remuneration Authority is an independent statutory body that determines the remuneration for judicial and statutory officers who need to have and be seen to have independence from the Government. For example the Remuneration Authority determines the remuneration for Judges because Judges need to be and to be seen to be impartial independent from Government and free from political influence or interference in their decision making." This is crucial for our structure of governance and contributes to public trust and confidence in the judicial system. "The Remuneration Authority Act … prescribes the criteria the Remuneration Authority must consider in determining officers' remuneration. The criteria include the requirements of the position relativity to the market and fairness to those whose remuneration is being set and to the taxpayer. Determinations are made and reviewed on an annual basis. The Government has to implement the Remuneration Authority's determinations."By way of context "The Cabinet Fees Framework classifies judicial statutory officers into 4 broad categories for fee-setting purposes and prescribes a range of fees for each category that reflects the nature of [the] work including the expertise required the extent of their decision-making powers and the impact of their decisions. The Minister or the fee sitting authority responsible for the officers makes the final decision on the fee to be paid to each type of officer within that fee range."To speak to one of these authorities which I am quite familiar with the community magistrates—Kieran McAnulty: What'd you do?JOSEPH MOONEY: —community magistrates sit in the District Court—and the member opposite asked what did I do? Well let me tell you what I did! Ha ha! "Community Magistrates sit in the District Court and hear matters that would otherwise come before a District Court Judge. Community Magistrates are required to have the personal qualities experience and skills needed to deal with lower-level criminal matters." Now I cut my teeth as a lawyer in the Manukau District Court spending about two years there—the busiest court in the country—and a lot of that I cut my teeth on so to speak was as a duty lawyer. When you have a huge volume of work coming through the court a lot of it needs to go in front of the community magistrate because frankly the judges just don't have the capacity to deal with it. So you'd actually have one lawyer who was on duty; they'd have to sit in the court and all the other duty lawyers would take instructions from the defendants get the information from the police information from the court get instructions on what the defendant was going to do and then give it to the person sitting in court. The job of the duty lawyer giving the information to the duty lawyer sitting in court was to make sure they had clear instructions and to write them out. Having said that I spent many a long day in the Manukau District Court sitting in the chair and being given instructions and sometimes instructions were better than others.But look the crucial work that the community magistrates did was seen on a daily basis. They would have to sentence people. They could sentence people to anything up to community detention; they could not sentence them to prison. However they could and they did have to decide regularly on bail applications. It is and was a key part of the operation of the court. I also did a similar thing in the Auckland District Court spending quite some time there as well and the community magistrate also performed a key function in the operation of that court. I also saw and appeared in front of community magistrates representing defendants in the Tauranga District Court and more recently in the Invercargill and Queenstown District Courts. They perform an absolutely crucial function and they cover work that the District Courts could not otherwise do because they just don't have the capacity in the number of judges available to do that work. I'm very pleased to see them recognised in this bill before the House tonight.The other bodies that we see recognised here—also the disputes tribunal which is a division of the District Court. "It considers disputes based on contract quasi-contract or tort involving destruction or loss of or damage or injury to property and the recovery of property of up to $30000. Referees are required to have appropriate qualifications such as legal mediation or arbitration qualifications or training as well as the personal attributes knowledge and experience needed for the role. Referees are required to try to mediate a settlement first. Where [that's] not possible the Referee makes an order that is binding on the parties."The Environment Court is also included in this bill and "largely deals with appeals about the contents of regional and district plans and appeals arising out of applications for resource consents. Commissioners are appointed for their knowledge and experience in matters coming before the court such as planning resource management and heritage protection. Environment Commissioners and Deputy Environment Commissioners sit in the Environment Court hearing matters and making decisions either as a panel (with an Environment Court judge) or alone."The Immigration and Protection Tribunal which also comes under this bill "hears appeals against decisions of the Minister of Immigration or Immigration New Zealand on residence class visas; deportation (including appeals on humanitarian grounds) and claims to be recognised as a refugee or protected person. The Minister of Immigration or Immigration New Zealand is a party to these appeals. The tribunal [must] be chaired by a District Court judge and the members are required to be legally qualified. As the tribunal chair is a District Court Judge their remuneration is already set by the Remuneration Authority. [This] Bill transfers responsibility for determining the remuneration of the other tribunal members to the Remuneration Authority." I feel like I'm saying "remuneration" a lot tonight testing one's ability to keep saying that word. It's a bit of a tongue twister. Hon Member: Say it again.JOSEPH MOONEY: Remuneration—there you go."The Tenancy Tribunal hears disputes between landlords (including Kāinga Ora) and tenants of residential properties and disputes relating to unit title developments such as apartment buildings. Tenancy Tribunal Adjudicators are required to either be legally qualified or [to] have the knowledge or experience needed for the role. The Residential Tenancies Amendment Act 2020 and the Residential Tenancies (Healthy Homes Standards) Regulations 2019 have significantly expanded the tribunal's role and responsibilities. For example the monetary threshold of the Tenancy Tribunal for residential tenancy disputes has been doubled from $50000 to $100000. The tribunal can now impose pecuniary penalties of up to $50000 on non-compliant landlords and can issue works orders to compel landlords comply with the Healthy Homes Standards. The chief executive of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment can initiate proceedings against non-compliant landlords.""The Human Rights Review Tribunal hears claims relating to breaches of the Human Rights Act 1993 the Privacy Act 2020 and the Health and Disability Commissioner Act 1994. Each case is heard by the Chairperson or a Deputy Chairperson and 2 panel members. The Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson [is] required to be legally qualified. Panel members are expected to have [the] knowledge or experience of matters likely to come before the tribunal including economic employment cultural or social issues. The Chairperson or a Deputy Chairperson chairs the panel that considers each case and also writes the tribunal decision."This is a good bill and I am pleased to speak in support of it tonight."