Estimates Debate — Vote Courts

The common perception on the street is that our court system is in disarray, it is foundering, and it is not working. Delays are getting longer, stays of prosecution for systemic reasons are becoming more common, and confidence in our court and justice systems is diminishing. What does the Minister have to say about this? If we look at the transcript in the report of the Law and Order Committee on the 2008-09 estimates for Vote Courts, we see that the Minister quite clearly stated, with confidence, that “the system is working”. That is what he said—the system is working.

But how can the system be working when median waiting times for High Court jury trials have increased by 70 percent to 304 days since 2003? How can the system be working when waiting times at District Courts have increased to 270 days since 2004, and by 11 percent in just the last 5 months? How can the system be working when some courts have waiting times of more than a year, including the High Courts in Wanganui and Whangarei? Since 2003 waiting times have more than doubled in Auckland, Blenheim, and Gisborne, and at District Courts in Rotorua, Blenheim and Invercargill. How can the system be working when many courts have waiting times of more than 300 days, including the High Courts at Hamilton, Nelson, Rotorua, Palmerston North, New Plymouth, Wellington, and Auckland, and District Courts at Greymouth and Kaikohe? It is quite clear that the system is not working, and that under this Government waiting times and the number of outstanding cases have got worse.

As recently as Sunday in the Sunday Star-Times we saw yet another instance of a case being thrown out as the judge attacked the court system. Serious criminal charges are being thrown out unheard, after delays have been caused by what the judge called “shamefully inadequate” court facilities. The judge described as “grossly unsatisfactory” a delay of 2½ years in the trial of a man charged with child sex offences. The judge threw out 15 charges against that man, and he warned of his great concern that many more cases would follow as the backlog of District Court juries, which has risen by nearly 50 percent in 3 years, continues to mount. A trial scheduled for July 2007 was cancelled because no trained staffer was available to act as a registrar. The system is not working.

This Government has not got on top of the issue, and it is foundering and floundering. So bereft of ideas is the Minister that he was even heard to bleat that the National Party should stop criticising him and offer to help. The only excuse that the Minister can give is that the number of cases is increasing, and that the disposal rate of some cases is increasing. But the bottom line is that waiting times have more than doubled since 2003 in some jurisdictions—the bottom line is that waiting times have more than doubled. One response from the Minister, which, again, can be found in the select committee report transcript, was: “if everything stood still and nothing changed, from, say, 4 years ago, my court staff, with all the improvements we’ve made, would be waiting for work. … If the number of informations and prosecutions being laid had stayed where they were in, say, 2004, we would be twiddling our thumbs looking for work.” So this Government needs a buffer of 4 years to catch up, but according to the Minister that is OK because more cases are being processed. That may be true, but waiting times are getting longer and longer, and worse and worse.

Our court system is going backwards, and I have to say that it is not working. Where offenders have walked free—because of systemic failures and a permanent stay of proceedings—the response of this Minister to the victims of those crimes has been that that is OK, and that the system is working. I say that the system is not working.

Vote agreed to.

Having received clearance from both the National Party and the Greens that they do not wish to take part in the debate on Vote Racing, when they had first of all signalled they would, can I move that this matter therefore not be discussed and the estimates carry on as was previously arranged, albeit short of one item?

The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson): The member would have to seek leave. Is the member seeking leave? The Committee is the master of its own destiny.

Yes.

The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson): Is there any objection to that course of action being taken? There is none.

Vote Emergency Management agreed to.

Vote Internal Affairs