Burton Mark: Appointments — Deputy Police Complaints Authority 
Burton Mark: Appointments — Deputy Police Complaints Authority 
[Volume:638;Page:8574] 
Hon MARK BURTON (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 I move  
That pursuant to section 8 of the Police Complaints Authority Act 1988 this House recommend His Excellency the Governor-General appoint Judge Michael Henry Walkinton Lance acting District Court Judge of Wellington as deputy to the Police Complaints Authority for a term of one year commencing on the date of appointment 
. The Police Complaints Authority Act 1988 provides for the appointment of a Deputy Police Complaints Authority who subject to the control of the authority has all the powers duties and functions of the authority. A Deputy Police Complaints Authority was appointed in June 2005 for a 2-year term but unfortunately was unable to complete the term due to ill health. The appointment is in effect therefore to fill a vacancy. 
Appointment is by the Governor-General on the recommendation of this House of Representatives. The leaders of all political parties represented in the House have been consulted in writing about the proposed appointment and I am pleased to advise the House that all have indicated their parties’ support for the nominee. I think given the announcements earlier today and the pivotal role that the Police Complaints Authority will play in future the full support of the Parliament is particularly helpful for this important appointment. 
The Act requires that the deputy authority is a qualified barrister and solicitor of the High Court and possesses suitable legal experience for the task. Because of the considerable responsibilities vested in the position and because of the high public profile of the office the general practice has been to select both the authority and the deputy authority from nominations supplied by the heads of bench. Nominations for this appointment were sought from the Chief District Court Judge. The nominated appointee Judge Lance gained a Bachelor of Laws from Victoria University back in 1960 and was admitted to the Bar in 1961. His career from 1961 to 1983 was in private practice in the good town of Wanganui with Treadwell Gordon and Co. specialising in criminal civil domestic and tribunal work. During that time he was a member of the Wanganui District Law Society and served as a member and chairman of the central districts disciplinary tribunal. From 1983 to 1990 he practised as a barrister sole specialising in criminal work and particularly jury trials. He was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1988. He was appointed a District Court judge in 1990 sitting mainly in the criminal jurisdiction and jury trials. He is currently responsible for administering jury trials in the northern region. 
Both Justice Goddard the Police Complaints Authority and the Chief Justice attest to Judge Lance’s skills as a jurist and as an administrator and recommend him as a sound appointment choice. The authority has made excellent progress this year in reducing the number of older complaints on file and given again the report that we debated in this House a little earlier today it is particularly pleasing to be able to report on the addressing of those older files and the backlog because that is indeed one of the recommendations that Dame Margaret Bazley’s report gave to the House. For example at the end of the last financial year the authority had 219 complaint files that had first been opened in 2003-04. This number has now been reduced to 68. 
The previous backlog of complaints had developed as a result of increasing complaint numbers over the years. The authority received additional funding of $550000 in Budget 2006 to help address this backlog. Some older complaints may remain on file due to the need for the authority to defer completion until after other proceedings relevant to the complaint have ended. That will always be a challenge in terms of some of the cases before the authority. It would not be appropriate for the authority to pre-empt or prejudice any prosecuting decisions and/or criminal civil or disciplinary proceedings that may result from the consideration of the issues by the bodies set up for those purposes—that is of course the courts the coroner the police and so on. The authority has opened 943 new complaint files since the start of the current financial year. The total number of complaints on file has reduced from 1767 at the end of June 2006 to 1650 currently. 
The authority is the most independent of all the independent Crown entities. Appointments and removals can be made only on the recommendation of the House not a Minister. The current Police Complaints Authority Justice Lowell Goddard is a High Court judge with a very good reputation within judicial and wider legal circles and I think that was attested to by members of the House in the earlier debate. The appointment of a Deputy Police Complaints Authority and the proposal in the Independent Police Complaints Amendment Bill to expand the authority will increase the capacity of the authority to deal with complaints and will enhance its independence. The increase in membership will also mean that the authority will be more representative of different parts of the community. 
I should perhaps comment at this point that the duration of this appointment—1 year—has been raised with me and I want to put on record that this simply reflects the uncertainty of what recommendations the House might be asked to consider by the report into police conduct that we have now received. It was deemed appropriate to keep options open in order to be able to be responsive to that. But as it is currently positioned the deputy authority would indeed assume and continue on under the new bill. 
The Gallen review recommended that the authority have an investigative capacity of its own independent of the police and that was implemented in 2003. The authority now has a team of four investigators headed by a manager of investigations. None of the investigators are sworn members of the police. The team includes former senior officers from overseas police forces. The team primarily deals with the most serious complaints and incidents such as where death or serious injury occurs as a result of police actions. The role and processes of the team are continually developing. 
The Government will act on all of the recommendations in the report that was tabled in this House today. I think it is important that we affirm the role of the Police Complaints Authority and recognise that this proposed appointment will strengthen the capability of the authority in ensuring that indeed those recommendations can be quickly and thoroughly acted upon. I have pleasure in recommending this nomination to the House for recommendation to the Governor-General.