Wilkinson Kate: Coroners Bill — In Committee 
Wilkinson Kate: Coroners Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:633;Page:4678] 
KATE WILKINSON (National) 
: 
 Thank you Madam Chair for allowing me to take a call on Part 4. I too want to discuss in more detail the disestablishment of current coroner positions. The matter has been covered by my colleagues from a constitutional point of view and also from the point of view of compensation. My slant on it though is more from a practical point of view—one of justice and fairness. 
We know that under the new system approximately 20 full-time legally qualified coroners would replace our existing approximately 60 mostly part-time coroners. The commentary on the bill advises that yes current coronial positions would be disestablished. It states: “We were advised that any sufficiently qualified coroner would be eligible to apply for re-employment as a full-time coroner under the new regime.” That is the point I really want to elaborate on. 
Many part-time coroners at the moment are practising solicitors. They have a full solicitor’s practice but they may not necessarily want a full-time coroner’s job. They have many years of experience yet they are not going to get any redundancy or compensation. But worse than that our coronial system will lose a lot of that experience and wealth of knowledge. 
The Coroners Bill stipulates the qualifications that coroners must hold. A coroner must have held a practising certificate as a barrister or solicitor for at least 5 years. There are examples of hugely valued and experienced coroners throughout New Zealand who have been coroners for many many decades. They have that depth of knowledge experience and local knowledge around their areas but they do not necessarily have a law degree. So they are being unceremoniously dumped by this bill without being given any sense of recognition whatsoever. 
That situation is particularly pertinent in many rural areas. I have been to Gisborne to talk about the situation there and I know that coroners on the West Coast are in a similar situation. These regional and rural areas are unique and have their own characteristics. In the tragic circumstances around death it is important that coroners have some local knowledge of the people and their circle of acquaintances which is knowledge that a travelling coroner perhaps might not have. Some of those highly experienced long-term coroners feel—and I have some sympathy for them—they have been discriminated against. 
I have a letter from a coroner in Westport and he refers to other areas like Ruatoria Motueka and Kaikohe. I have already mentioned Gisborne. He has written a very comprehensive letter which details some of his grievances if you like. I think the best way to do him justice is to quote from his letter. I will obviously quote selectively; I will not read the whole letter. The letter states: “The proposal is that we be dismissed without compensation because we do not hold a law degree and have not practised as a lawyer for at least 7 years. In my case I was appointed by the then Minister the Hon Geoffrey Palmer later Prime Minister now Sir Geoffrey Palmer and shortly to be President of the Law Commission. I was going to become a lawyer like the other 58 coroners with law degrees who are my fellow coroners but in those days Latin was a compulsory subject and my school in Westport did not teach Latin. However I did work in the head office legal section of the Public Trust Office in Wellington for quite a number of years prior to coming back to Westport to practise accountancy. I am currently a retired Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants a member of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries and a Fellow of the Institute of Directors. I have also been a justice of the peace for 38 years the first 20 or so being constantly engaged on the bench at the Westport District Court. In those days justices carried out a great many more duties than they do today. At a coroners conference a few years ago the then Minister the Hon Phil Goff said that all the new appointments since he took over were qualified solicitors. I have no quarrel with that as he was talking about new appointments replacing a vacancy or vacancies.” 
The coroner who wrote that letter has had 20 years of experience but he does not have a fixed contract. He is not covered by provisions in the Coroners Bill so he has no right of redress. He has no law degree because they did not teach Latin in Westport in those days. The enacting of this bill will mean that Westport and other areas within provincial New Zealand lose that hugely valuable knowledge base and experience. What is worse is that these coroners who have given a tremendous service to the community did not need to be lawyers in those days. They do a great job as coroners now but they are being dumped without ceremony by the callous provisions of this bill. 
There are transitional provisions and it would have been very very simple for those transitional provisions to have allowed these talented experienced dedicated but non-legal coroners to continue to benefit and give value to our coronial system in New Zealand. Unfortunately that is not the case but it would not take much—I hope the Minister will take a call on it—merely to amend the transitional provisions to allow for suitably qualified existing coroners to continue to be of service to the community.