Collins Judith: Protection of Personal and Property Rights  Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Collins Judith: Protection of Personal and Property Rights  Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 11 September 2007. Volume:642;Page:11752. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 As deputy chair of the Social Services Committee it is my privilege to be able to speak in favour of the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Amendment Bill. I would like to thank the Minister Ruth Dyson for acknowledging the work the select committee has done because many Ministers acknowledge the work of the select committees only when it is in their favour. 
In this particular case having had the experience of being a lawyer for about 20 years and having drafted many powers of attorney—in particular enduring powers of attorney acting on estates and dealing with people who were in some cases in need of care—I found that these amendments were very appropriate especially those relating to persons who can witness an enduring power of attorney. I was pleased to note that after about 19 years of enduring powers of attorney being available experienced legal executives who are members of the New Zealand Institute of Legal Executives will be able to witness the documents. That is simply a sign of the times because in the days when enduring powers of attorney first came in I do not actually recall that legal executives—except for certain legal executives whom the Land Transfer Office as it was allowed—were able to witness an awful lot of documents. 
The provision relating to the independence of witnesses is a sensible one. The law will make sure that witnesses must be independent in terms of that witnessing. That is extremely important. 
The provisions for certification of medical incapacity and for decisions made by attorneys on reasonable grounds are sensible as is the requirement for attorneys to keep financial records. 
One of the interesting aspects of this whole concept of enduring power of attorney is that the system was brought in to deal with the reality that many people who had given powers of attorney back in the 1980s and earlier had actually lost the capacity to give powers of attorney and therefore to maintain their relationship with the person to whom they had given power of attorney. In other words they had lost mental capacity. 
What happened in the legal profession was that quite a lot of people were working under powers of attorney from their parents even though those parents had lost mental capacity. Effectively the only way around it was in many cases to go to court constantly to get permission to do things and to make decisions for the benefit of the parent. That was one of the situations that had to be remedied so it was. 
Since then we have had instances of children in particular who have abused their power of attorney. We have seen instances where people who have given an enduring power of attorney then want to change their minds. As the enduring power of attorney does not have quite the same flexibility as a normal power of attorney it is important that we recognise that difficulty and try to put it right. 
As the Minister correctly said some very disturbing instances of elder abuse can be perpetuated or certainly result from the misuse of an enduring power of attorney. Our elderly—in particular those who have lost mental capacity—are extremely vulnerable and extremely liable to abuse if we do not exercise these duties in a very very caring and responsible way. As a lawyer brought in to look at a particular situation I have seen this misuse at first hand. The situation was one whereby a lawyer actually allowed someone to misuse a power of attorney. 
I think that the way we are addressing these issues with this bill is sensible. No doubt in the next 20 years we will have to look at the matter again. 
In summary this bill is one that will have to be amended from time to time over the years. I hope we will be able to do that in the very sensible and sensitive way in which the committee has dealt with it this time.