Mark Ron: Judicial Retirement Age Bill — First Reading 
Mark Ron: Judicial Retirement Age Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6567] 
RON MARK (NZ First) 
: 
 I very briefly put on the record that New Zealand First is also supporting this bill. I think it is worthy of note actually that as an MP one often gets approached by people who want to be Justices of the Peace and I have noted with some alarm the age of some people who are still supposedly functioning as Justices of the Peace—some as old as 90 I am told. It does beg the question when one has business people such as the great Sir Angus Tait. He is a very highly regarded businessman in Christchurch. One would shudder at the thought of people retiring Angus Tait out of business at the age of 65. 
If one looks at a number of the captains of industry and indeed even some of the leaders in this House—Dr Don Brash must be getting close to his retirement age if he had been a judge. To actually say that Don Brash could not continue on as a leader after 65 years of age because he was too old for the job would be a little unfair a little cruel and a little unkind. I know that some members of Parliament want to get rid of him a lot quicker than that and that is their choice but— 
Dr Richard Worth 
: How old is the member? 
RON MARK 
: Old enough to see what is happening around here. I am a bit embarrassed to give my age—it is the grand old age of 52 since the member asked. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: You’re older than me Ron. 
RON MARK 
: I am a bit younger that him am I not? 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: Yeah could be. 
RON MARK 
: A little bit younger than him. So being a younger man and being very respectful and mindful of my elders I do not think I would like to see Dr Richard Worth forcibly retired as a judge at the age of 65. That would leave him only 1 year to go if he got the job next year would it not? I think there is a lot more work in that old horse over there and a lot more wisdom. It is actually an interesting question is it not? We have gone through an era in this country when we suddenly deemed by fashion I guess that it was inappropriate to have older New Zealanders holding senior management jobs or positions of authority. We suddenly turned and if I could put a finger on a time and say “I think it happened about there.” I would probably target the Roger Douglas Labour Government era when suddenly people viewed Government departments the public service and captains of industry as being all businesses and that businesses needed to be run by young vibrant vigorous people—not necessarily people of great depth great wisdom or great experience but young and vibrant. One of the legacies that that has left us is a whole bunch—a mass of highly qualified highly competent wise seasoned experienced New Zealanders now sitting on the scrap heap. 
Some call it retirement but regretfully—and unfortunately it affects men I think more these days—a large number of men in their 50s who are on the scrap heap struggle to get back into the workforce because they are deemed too old. Well I think that is a load of nonsense. I think and New Zealand First believes there are judges who are serving this nation today who are of immense value to this nation. They have a lot of service left in them and we can ill do without their wisdom knowledge and experience. All I ask the House to consider when we work our way through this bill is to cast one’s mind a little wider at the greater New Zealand society and ask ourselves whether we have not in fact done ourselves a disservice by forcing people to retire from the public service—from the service of the Government—when really they should never have left but were forced into retirement forced into redundancy and forced out of work simply because they were deemed or considered to be too old.