Financial Review Debate — Ministry of Justice

Thank you for the opportunity to take a call on this matter. I would like to take the opportunity to thank the staff of the Ministry of Justice for the excellent work they have done over the last year, in particular with the major work of reform that has been undergone within the ministry, but also in the provision of justice generally, the issues that we have around making justice more accessible, more user-friendly to people, and to demystify many of the things that have been somewhat mystified over the years.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank the Justice and Electoral Committee, which has done sterling work over the last year, and I am sure it will continue to do so. This is, in fact, a committee that has worked very hard to come to consensus opinions wherever it can but also, where it has not been able to have consensus, it has been able to deal with the fact that not all parties are going to agree with everything and have done so on a reasonable basis.

One of the areas where the committee has been involved and where justice is obviously involved is that of electoral reform and elections generally. We have seen in the last year something that we have never seen before in New Zealand, and that is we have seen a person convicted of electoral fraud in the courts. There were 70-odd names of people, supposedly living at one address, all to do with local government. But if you think about it now, under the EasyVote card system, which we have been urged by the Electoral Commission to extend further, 70 of those EasyVote cards would have gone to one household.

The committee, I know, has been very much involved in looking at how the EasyVote card could be used, but not to the detriment of the integrity of elections. I would have thought that anybody who cannot remember what their name is as they are coming up to vote may in fact not be the person whose name is on the EasyVote card. I would like to thank the committee for its pretty much, I think, unanimous report back, which I understand will be debated later tonight. But that is some of the work that the Justice and Electoral Committee does, and it is also some of the area of the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice ranges right across family law, criminal law, civil law generally, our human rights record—all those sorts of areas—as well as electoral reform. It is a huge ministry in terms of its workload, and a huge ministry in terms of the number of pieces of legislation that it has responsibility for.

Recently I was able to represent New Zealand, along with ministry and other officials, at the United Nations in Geneva on our human rights record, which, I have to say, was greeted with a tremendous amount of acclaim, frankly. I was really proud to be representing New Zealand, and I think all members of Parliament should be pleased with the fact that New Zealand does have an excellent human rights record, and we will continue to do so, certainly under this Government.

It was one of the areas where nobody brought up the electoral issues. They did not bring up the Electoral Finance Act, under a former Government. They did not have to because we have already dealt with it. They did not have to bring up the foreshore and seabed legislation, under a former Government, because we have dealt with that too. So there is a tremendous amount of support.

In fact, one of the things that our staff over at the ministry were very impressed with was the number of ambassadors from other countries who stood in a queue to shake my hand, on behalf of New Zealand. I have to say I was quite pleased with that. I also felt that it was a testament to the work of many. It was a testament to the work of this House, and also a testament to the work of our agencies, which help to keep New Zealand such a safe and good citizen within the world. As we have seen in Europe recently—in just the last few days—this is not something that can be taken for granted.

In fact, elections and electoral responsibility and integrity are matters that we cannot take for granted. We cannot presume that anyone armed with a little card with someone’s name on it is necessarily the person whom they claim to be. As I have said before, if you cannot remember what name it is that you are using today, perhaps it is not you. It is one of the areas where I think we need to be vigilant. I would like to thank Denis O’Rourke, whose idea this was in the select committee. I am not sure he is necessarily supporting it now, but that is called politics. Unfortunately, integrity still has a way to come within politics. Thank you.

Report noted.

Ministry of Health