Sio Hon Aupito WilliamTRIBUNALS POWERS AND PROCEDURES LEGISLATION BILLIn CommitteePart 1 Amendments to ActsHon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO (Associate Minister for Courts): Madam Chair I appreciate the committee's indulgence. I want to spend a bit of time introducing Part 1 of the Tribunals Powers and Procedures Legislation Bill. It is an omnibus bill in two parts that makes relatively small but important amendments to the Acts governing 21 tribunals administered by the Ministry of Justice. This bill and the Courts Matters Bill form an integrated package of reforms of the courts and tribunals system. Tribunals are expert forums for hearing and resolving disputes dealing with occupational discipline and regulation and for reviewing decisions of Government agencies. The 21 tribunals affected by this bill provide low-cost timely and specialist forums for a very broad range of matters. The Tribunals Powers and Procedures Legislation Bill will improve users' experience of these 21 tribunals by simplifying and standardising statutory powers and procedures to improve efficiency and timeliness and by providing better consumer protection and redress and greater access to justice. I want to highlight the principal amendments as we examine each part of the bill. Before turning to Part 1 I note that the Government's Supplementary Order Paper 133 adds a new Subpart 20A which transfers the amendments to the 1964 Social Security Act to the recently enacted 2018 Social Security Act without making any policy changes. It deletes the amendments to the current Social Security Act because that is to be repealed soon. It also deletes the amendments to the Customs and Excise Act 1996 which was repealed recently. These amendments have also been transferred to the new Customs and Excise Act 2018. The Supplementary Order Paper makes further amendments to better implement the policies of the bill as well as to correct errors of omission. Part 1 of the Tribunals Powers and Procedures Legislation Bill comprises 24 subparts and makes up almost all of the bill. Part 1 contains the amendment this Government has added to the bill to address the backlog of cases that has developed in the Human Rights Review Tribunal since 2016. These amendments include authorising the appointment of one or more deputy chairpersons instead of a second chairperson and authorising the chairperson or a deputy chairperson alone to consider appropriate matters on the papers. This will help to reduce the backlog because much of this tribunal's work has to be undertaken by the chairpersons. In future the deputy chairpersons will be able to perform the same functions as the chairperson. Part 1 also provides the 21 tribunals administered by the Ministry of Justice with the powers and procedures they need to resolve matters sooner. Members will have noticed that the same amendments are repeated across several subparts. Tribunal users will benefit from the standard provisions that authorise tribunals to consider more matters on the papers and to use audiovisual link technology more often. Many tribunals have been given contempt powers to enable disruptive people to be removed during hearings. These tribunals will also have broader powers to strike out meritless proceedings and to decide matters in a party's absence in appropriate circumstances. Part 1 clarifies that retiring tribunal members can complete any cases that have commenced. This will ensure proceedings are not unnecessarily prolonged or delayed when changes are made to a tribunal's membership. Part 1 will also enable tribunals to provide greater access to justice by providing a simpler quicker and cheaper alternative to a court case. The disputes tribunal monetary threshold will be increased from $15000—or $20000 if all parties agree—to $30000. The disputes tribunals provide a quicker simpler and cheaper forum than a court for resolving lower-value disputes. The Real Estate Agents Disciplinary Tribunal will be able to award monetary compensation of up to $100000 for financial losses arising from a real estate agent's unsatisfactory conduct. The tribunal sanctions poor behaviour by real estate agents. The Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority will be able to discipline unsatisfactory conduct as well as misconduct. This will allow the authority to appropriately address concerning behaviour—such as bullying by private security personnel and private investigators—that might not meet the higher threshold of misconduct. Part 1 also addresses several anomalies in the legislation of these 21 tribunals. For example Part 1 clarifies that monetary orders such as fines fee refunds and compensation ordered by the Legal Complaints Review Officer can be enforced in the District Court if they are not voluntarily paid. The Legal Complaints Review Officer sanctions poor behaviour by lawyers and conveyancers. Part 1 also authorises insurance companies to be represented at disputes tribunal hearings by agents as well as by employees or officers. Insurance companies are parties in around one-third of all disputes tribunal cases. This change will align better with the way that insurance companies operate. Finally Part 1 will disestablish two rarely used tribunals: the Health Boards of Appeal and the Maritime Appeal Authority. These tribunals have not received any new cases for several years and any future cases will be heard in the District Court instead. I hope that helps members in the debate on the Tribunals Powers and Procedures Legislation Bill.