Appointments — Police Complaints Authority—Ian Albert Borrin

I move, That, pursuant to sections 4 and 5 of the Police Complaints Authority Act 1988, this House recommends Her Excellency the Governor-General reappoint Ian Albert Borrin, District Court Judge of Wellington, as Police Complaints Authority for a term of 2 years. Judge Borrin has been on the District Court bench since 1983. He became the then Deputy Police Complaints Authority in September 1997, subsequently the acting authority in 2000, and then the authority from 2001. When his name was put forward for appointment in 2001 every party in this House supported that appointment, and the indication I have is that he will be supported again by all but one party in the House. I think that that is appropriate; he has done a competent job.

Finally, I would like to foreshadow that upon the passage of the Independent Police Complaints Authority Amendment Bill, which is before the House, membership of the authority will be supplemented by an additional two appointments, in line with recommendations of the Gallen review in 2000.

The National Party in Opposition will support the reappointment of Judge Ian Borrin as the Police Complaints Authority for a period of 2 years. We believe that it is one of the more difficult jobs in the public service.

It is a responsibility that has outcomes people often feel dissatisfied about. Much of that dissatisfaction arises from the investigative capacity the authority currently has, which relies on sworn police officers to collect the facts and other associated material from which the authority can then make his decisions. As a result, the Government has introduced, with the support of the National Party in Opposition, the Independent Police Complaints Authority Amendment Bill.

The Prime Minister indicated last month that that legislation would be put on hold, pending the outcome of the commission of inquiry into police practices in respect of complaints relating to certain offences involving the police. That is an appropriate step. The National Party wants to signal to the Government that we think it will be very important to move swiftly upon the conclusion of that commission of inquiry, to incorporate any appropriate amendments in the Independent Police Complaints Authority Amendment Bill. What has happened with those complaints, and with other allegations that have been made about the police, is that the spotlight has been turned on the Police Complaints Authority system, as, indeed, comments in the last 48 hours have also done so. We think it will be vitally important that the authority is in a position to have its legislation amended, and to have its independent and separate investigative capacity implemented and up and running as soon as possible.

In the last financial year the authority received 2,369 complaints that were accepted for full investigation. A further 500 were not accepted. As at balance date, over 1,600 cases were still described as current. It is appropriate to express at this time that the National Party in Opposition is concerned about how long it is taking for the authority to deal with a number of those cases before it. In fact, as recently as today one of my colleagues has drawn to my attention the case of Mr Powell from Canterbury, for example, whose complaint was laid with the authority in mid-2001, and here we are 3 months into 2004 and there is still no resolution of the matter. One of the key points we would raise with the Government is that it is vital the Police Complaints Authority is resourced to be able to deal swiftly with complaints.

As I said at the beginning of my contribution, this is one of the most difficult jobs in the public service, people are often dissatisfied with its outcomes, and whatever Parliament can do to try to minimise that dissatisfaction we should do. One of the steps the Government should take is to ensure that the authority, as it is currently structured, is sufficiently resourced so that it can reduce what appears to me to be quite a considerable backlog and delay in its cases. I do not know whether Judge Borrin has sought additional resources from the Government to clear what appears to me to be a considerable backlog, but I think that officials should be discussing with him what can be done to resolve that problem.

When Parliament moves to establish the Independent Police Complaints Authority it will be vital that not only does it have an independent investigative capacity but that it responds in a timely way. The public will have increased and enhanced confidence in an Independent Police Complaints Authority if timeliness goes hand in hand with professionalism and independence.

In summary, the National Party in Opposition supports the reappointment of Judge Borrin. We note his considerable service as the Deputy Police Complaints Authority under Judge Jaine previously. I think Judge Borrin is a well-respected member of the New Zealand judiciary. I know he is held in regard by members of Parliament and by many of those outside the House. It is vital that this place supports his work by ensuring it is properly resourced so that he can provide timely decisions, and it is vital that the Government moves to pass the Independent Police Complaints Authority Amendment Bill as swiftly as possible after the current commission of inquiry, in order to restore and enhance confidence not only in the complaints procedure but also in the New Zealand Police in general.

New Zealand First supports the Government’s motion to reappoint Ian Albert Borrin, District Court Judge of Wellington, as Police Complaints Authority for a term of 2 years. I have had the opportunity on the Justice and Electoral Committee to consider the Police Complaints Authority and the way in which it works. It is obviously a very important role to undertake in New Zealand. Complaints against the police must be considered even more carefully than any other type of complaint that can possibly come forward.

One of the points made by the previous speaker about the manner of appointment of staff to the Police Complaints Authority was very worth while. It is difficult when police are investigating police, and, in questioning the authority at the time, it was found that one of its other problems was that the non-police members who it employs to do investigations tend to be former members of the police. There does not appear to be a sufficiently resourced group in New Zealand to undertake totally independent inquiries. None the less, New Zealand First has great support for the police. They must be supported by the House. The Police Complaints Authority has a system that allows citizens to vent their spleen if they feel something has gone astray.

We are concerned about the delay in looking at these matters. I looked into a matter in the Helensville electorate myself not too long ago. It was resolved in about 3 or 4 months—unfortunately not too satisfactorily; but at least the citizen had the opportunity to express concern about the behaviour of a policeman, although he was off-duty. It is hard to let citizens know what sort of complaint they can make—whether it is just against someone on duty or someone off duty. Really, it sums up the role of police officers: they are virtually on duty all the time and must maintain a high standard, and New Zealand First is satisfied that they do. We support this motion.

The Green Party does not support the reappointment of Judge Borrin to head the Police Complaints Authority. We are not questioning Judge Borrin’s integrity, but we feel that the Police Complaints Authority is facing some significant difficulties at this time and believe that a fresh view is needed within the authority.

The credibility of the Police Complaints Authority is under serious threat. The simmering discontent at the role and function of the authority that has been bubbling along in the public mind for a number of years has reached a heat that cannot be ignored. We believe something has to give. The Government has recognised this with the introduction of the Independent Police Complaints Authority Amendment Bill that is currently before Parliament and has been referred to by previous speakers. That bill is an attempt to reassure the public about the independence of the authority and to try to give some investigative grunt to it, notwithstanding the quite correct concerns raised by Mr Jones about the difficulty of finding genuinely independent investigators who are not either police or ex-police. It is, of course, significant that those changes have been put on hold while we await the outcome of the inquiry into the investigation of rape allegations against the police and into the police culture current at the time of those allegations. We believe it is quite proper that those changes should be put on hold pending that investigation. We hope the inquiry will help identify further changes that might be needed in providing for the investigation of complaints against the police. The curiously contradictory findings of two Police Complaints Authority investigations into the investigations by John Dewar of those allegations has generated yet more unease in the public mind about the way the authority has operated in the past.

A significant concern I have about the current Police Complaints Authority is that when I have had the opportunity to question Judge Borrin at the select committee, as Mr Jones has had, there was no acceptance by him that such unease was anything other than a problem of perception. There has been no acceptance that there was a substantive problem with the way in which the authority has conducted its investigations in the past.

Most problems may not be of the authority’s making. As Mr Ryall said, the significant resource constraints the authority faces, as well as the legislation covering the Police Complaints Authority, have meant that complaints against police have, of necessity, had to be conducted largely by police officers, who are often work colleagues and personal friends of the complainees. However, we believe that the head of the Police Complaints Authority saying that this is simply a perception problem rather than a significant and systemic problem with an inevitable in-built bias, is striking. The widespread public perception of bias is, I believe, a result of problematic past-practice, rather than that perception itself being the problem. Of course, public perceptions are not helped by the revelations in today’s newspapers that the inquiry into the investigation of the rape allegations will be significantly hampered because the inquiry may not be able to call Police Complaints Authority staff to question them about the conduct of various investigations. That raises a very significant question: who watches the watchers?

The Police Complaints Authority is also facing a massive backlog of complaints, with delays of such length that investigation seems pointless when one finally gets around to them. My colleague Keith Locke has been waiting 4½ years for a judgment on a complaint he lodged regarding police treatment of protests against a visiting Chinese leader in 1999. Mr Ryall has raised another example of the same problem. I recall the Justice and Electoral Committee during the last term of Parliament holding an inquiry into those same incidents. The select committee was also hampered in its inquiry because of the complaints before the Police Complaints Authority, which inhibited the extent of evidence provided to the committee by submitters because it was a complaint before the Police Complaints Authority, and that stopped the authority from talking to us about what it knew. It seemed a totally ridiculous and farcical situation.

With the development of a new body, the Independent Police Complaints Authority, to investigate complaints against the police, it is important that a new culture develop within the authority. The authority must have the confidence of the public, and it must hold that confidence and retain it by instilling itself with a confident and courageous approach to the investigation of complaints against the police.

I believe that the New Zealand Police is largely free of systemic or institutionalised corruption, unlike some of our neighbours in the region. However, it would be untrue to say that there are no problems in the police, or that there are no corrupt officers or units. The key to this country keeping a police force largely free of such corruption is to vigorously investigate and deal with any examples of it. We cannot rely on the police to do that. The natural response of the police, as with any professional body, is to give the benefit of the doubt to its own members. That is why a strong, independent, and vigorous Police Complaints Authority is essential.

The Greens believe that it is important that the transition to the new body is shepherded by a fresh mind with a new approach to the functions of the authority. The history of Judge Borrin in the Police Complaints Authority as the head of the authority and as the deputy prior to that, we think, makes it difficult for him to fulfil that role. For that reason we oppose the reappointment of Judge Borrin.

National supports this motion. Judge Borrin has proved himself to be a worthy holder of his current office, and we support his reappointment. The last speaker’s concerns are not shared by the National Party. What I lament, though, is the fact that whilst we are reappointing Judge Borrin to this position, the legislation that would give him real teeth to exercise his office, the Independent Police Complaints Authority Amendment Bill, is languishing somewhere on the Order Paper. The Law and Order Committee, of which I was a member, discharged its responsibilities and reported back to the House on 17 November 2003, but this bill has still not come back to the House for a second reading despite the urgency of the moment.

The police force is clearly under close scrutiny. At the moment, with allegations of pack rape and corruption flying around, would it not have been nice to have an independent Police Complaints Authority structure in place to deal with those issues, rather than having to institute a separate inquiry altogether? We are now facing a crisis of public confidence in our police force, which is, I believe, very unfortunate and really very unwarranted.

Until recently, most New Zealanders had a view that one of the greatest assets of our police force was that it was strong and well disciplined. Unlike some police forces, as the previous speaker pointed out, our police force does not meddle in politics and it certainly does not brutalise its citizens. The police do a difficult job under difficult circumstances, despite constant battles with some of their top-heavy administration.

I accept that our police force is not perfect, and it is a concern that the Police Complaints Authority is seen to lack independence in dealing with some of the bad apples. Every day we hear stories and allegations of police misbehaviour or ineptitude. Some relate to well-known cases, like that of Arthur Allan Thomas, the Tamihere trial, and the Bain case, which Joe Karam continues to bring into public profile. On the whole, people overwhelmingly respect our police force for the work it does, but given cases like those, and given the 20/20 programme that screened last Sunday evening, is it any wonder that people—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: The member must come back to the specific motion. Television programmes do not have much to do with it.

Thank you, Mr Speaker, for your advice. There is little doubt that some members of the community have concern about the Police Complaints Authority’s performance of its role in accordance with the standards that have been set for it. Everyone hears rumours about inappropriate police behaviour. Whether or not the stories are true does not really matter; what concerns me is that those stories are being heard. No one who relays such stories really believes that the police will be brought to account for their actions, because under current Police Complaints Authority arrangements, the very institution that deals with the complaints is perceived to be part of the old boy network. I believe that Sir Rodney Gallen picked up this issue when he said: “The dissatisfaction expressed almost entirely arose out of the concern that the investigations in each case were actually made by the police, and the comment was repeatedly made that no one would expect persons connected with the organisation against which the complaint was made to act fairly and independently.” Judge Borrin will clearly have his hands full in dealing with that public perception.

An independent authority to rule on complaints against the police is needed here, as it is in the legal and medical professions. No one will take seriously a body that is not seen to be independent and impartial. What is worse, the current situation makes allegations against our police more believable, because a clean verdict by the Police Complaints Authority means nothing—no one really expects a guilty one. I believe that that is really unfortunate.

If all the information were made available to those expressing concerns about the Police Complaints Authority, it would become apparent, in my view, that 99 percent of those cases had very little merit. I think the Waitara case is an example. There is no doubt that that whole affair was a sad tragedy, but what Officer Abbot and his family had to endure was a sheer, living hell. His story might have been totally different if the Police Complaints Authority had had credibility. The public need to know that the authority is more than a rubber stamp, otherwise “Of course they will clear him.” will be the reaction. We can hear the conversations now when we go down to our local: “Who do you think they will believe—the crim or the cop?”. That is, I am afraid, the concern that has been created around the Police Complaints Authority, and, as I said before, I lament that.

At the moment the issue of credibility around the Police Complaints Authority is without foundation, and I would like to see the Government move quickly to introduce the Independent Police Complaints Authority in order to give some of that credibility back to a police force that, I believe, does a very fine job on the whole for the New Zealand public. The work that Judge Borrin and his team will engage in will be a vital step in rebuilding the image of the police within our community. Despite the current allegations against some of our police personnel, I do not believe at all that there is a widespread problem in our police force, and I, for one, am a very strong supporter of the police. But, as the saying goes, Caesar’s wife must be without suspicion, and so must it be with the police force.

Finally, I repeat that National supports the motion. We convey our best wishes to Judge Borrin and his team in the hard work they have ahead of them. Their job in lots of ways is very unrewarding. They are in a difficult position more often than not, because there is a suspicion, regardless of what results they achieve, that the result is not a fair result. That is why I again urge Government members to make sure that the Independent Police Complaints Authority Amendment Bill is put at the head of the Order Paper.

I rise on behalf of the ACT party to support the Government motion to reappoint Ian Borrin to the Police Complaints Authority. But I would like to use this opportunity to make a few comments about the Police Complaints Authority, and as it relates to the police. I think it is very important for New Zealand, for the confidence that the public has in the police, that the Police Complaints Authority is seen to act independently. I think New Zealanders have always harboured a real concern about police investigating their own, so when there are major issues such as the recent case of sexual allegations made against the police, it is one of those situations where the Minister and the Commissioner of Police might have done better by calling for an independent inquiry. The people of New Zealand could then feel that another body, completely separate from the Government and completely separate from the police themselves, was investigating what are very serious concerns—concerns that have arisen recently because they were not properly dealt with years ago when they were first brought to the attention of the authorities. So this is an issue that, as I say, the Minister and the commissioner should take on board and think about carefully so that we do learn from the mistakes, if one likes, of our own history.

The fact that the Police Complaints Authority dealt with more than 2,300 cases in the last year is also, I believe, a serious concern for people worried about law and order in New Zealand. If we look beneath that large number of complaints, I think we will see that there are a couple of issues that do deserve some mention. I think that if we compared the number of cases going to the equivalent of the Police Complaints Authority in other countries, we would find that in New Zealand there are more cases that involve violence against the police, or the police versus the public, than in, say, Australia. One of the reasons, of course, is that sadly in this country we do appear to have a culture of violence.

But a lot of the reasons can probably go back to the fact that in New Zealand the police are not armed. If somebody who is drunk decides to have a go against the police, then they have a go back, and that is perfectly natural. However, knowing that, it does appear to me that authorities should, where possible, take steps if they can to try to avoid those problems arising. I take the case of our traffic police who are out there, wearing their brightly coloured jackets so that they do not get run over at night, so that motorists can see they are there, and their brightly coloured jackets do stop them from getting injured. It does worry me when I read the police news that our police force has had a 2,300 percent increase in—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Will the member come back to the specific motion.

—stabbing attacks on police officers in the last 5 years. It is an issue, because those cases—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: The specific motion is the appointment of this man.

—go to the Police Complaints Authority so that Mr Borrin will have to rule on them. The Minister needs to try to look at ways to make sure that so many cases do not come before the Police Complaints Authority in the first place. Just having a look at the way in which his men can protect themselves is a very good thing for the Minister and the commissioner to do, given that we are coming up to a Budget round.

There is another reason for the number of complaints that come before the Police Complaints Authority, and it goes back to the employment laws that have been passed in—

💬 Mr SPEAKER: The member will come back to the specific motion. I do not want to have to warn her again, or her speech will be concluded.

The Police Complaints Authority deals with complaints against the police, made by the public. In the old days if one had a problem with a police officer it was reasonably easy for the officer to be shown that maybe a different career would be a good idea. These days, it is much more difficult to do that. An added problem faced by the police force is that it is not easy to ask officers who should not be in the police to move on. At the same time we have another problem of good officers leaving the police, because of the problems with their superannuation scheme.

In supporting this motion, I do think it is important that the Government, Mr Borrin, and the Police Complaints Authority itself have a look at why complaints are coming before the authority. The Police Complaints Authority can then talk to the Government to develop strategies and recommendations that will reduce the number of complaints that come before it in the first place. I have mentioned a few of those. Although I realise this is not a particularly widespread debate, it is important to put on the record that police problems should be sorted out as quickly as they can be. The public need to have confidence in their police force. It is vital for the good of this country. There is a lot of goodwill out there for the police. It is undermined somewhat by traffic policing, but that is a completely different story.

To finish, we do wish Mr Borrin well. However, I would say that with the Budget round coming up the Minister needs to look at whether there are strategies he can implement to reduce the number of complaints in the first place.

Motion agreed to.