Human Rights Amendment Bill

It is a privilege and an honour to take the final call in the second reading of the Human Rights Amendment Bill before the House. This bill obviously amends the Human Rights Act 1993. It has two particular areas of purpose. The first is to enable the establishment of a full-time commissioner with responsibility for leadership in disability rights within the Human Rights Commission and the second is to make changes to the role and the structure of the commission to strengthen its performance.

People may not know that, actually, this was initiated on 20 October 2010. The Minister at that time was the Hon Tariana Turia. As the Minister for Disability Issues she announced the establishment of a full-time Disability Rights Commissioner within the commission, but to formally establish this role would indeed need an amendment to the Act. This provided an opportunity to review the structure of the Human Rights Commission and to explore options for change in three key areas: firstly, in the composition of the commissioners who were there in place in its status quo; secondly, the governance arrangements; and, thirdly, the functions and powers of the commission itself.

There were 42 submissions that were made to the Justice and Electoral Committee and 19 oral submissions that were submitted. I would just like to take us through some of those submissions that I think are important and that also give weight to the recommendations that have been made by the Justice and Electoral Committee in particular. One of the areas was just in regard to one of the challenges of the improvements. In consultation with the commission and other Government agencies, the Ministry of Justice has identified some improvements that could be made to the composition. These were in regard to improving efficiency, the lack of effectiveness of the current composition of part-time commissioners, the inflexibility resulting from the way that specialised commissioners roles are provided for under the Act, and then, lastly, there sometimes being an unclear and incomplete description of the functions of the commissioners in the Act as it currently stands.

There are a number of things that I think are quite important in this legislation, especially for the disability community in particular. We know that New Zealand ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on 25 September 2008. Article 33 of the convention requires States to “maintain, strengthen, designate or establish within the State Party, a framework including one or more independent mechanisms, as appropriate, to promote, protect and monitor implementation of the present Convention.” We believe that the review and these amendments will definitely go a way to approving that.

A full-time commissioner position with responsibility for leadership and disciplinary rights will be created within the commission, and we think this is quite critical. The creation of these roles requires an amendment to the Act, as it currently enables commissioners formalised leadership roles in only two areas: race relations and equal employment opportunities. The changes to these roles, we think, are going to be quite significant. The Act currently provides for full-time and part-time commissioners. This will be changed to permit a composition of three full-time commissioners, and then also up to five part-time commissioners who will be part of that composition as well. Although we are removing the statutory roles of the Race Relations Commissioner and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner, we are requiring commissioners to be appointed to lead the work in these areas.

I just want to quote from the departmental report from which we heard submissions, and, again, from the Chief Human Rights Commissioner himself. In 22 of those submissions they were in support, indeed, of having the establishment of a disabilities commissioner in particular. The Chief Human Rights Commissioner submitted that it is quite critically important to be addressing these issues for the disability community as well.

Consultation with the Minister of Justice was also challenged. There was an issue in which we felt it would breach the Paris principles of independence of the Human Rights Commission. This was an issue of concern. In fact, 13 submitters opposed any reference to consultation with the Minister being included in this bill. Again, the Human Rights Commission actually submitted that this consultation with the Minister currently occurs at present, so, in effect, it was not seen that there was a breach, in fact, in regard to the Paris principles of independence for the human rights commissioners.

This bill will enable the chief commissioner to formally designate commissioners. We think this area here will then allow them to establish areas of importance that may be relevant in that current context in time for our communities. In some of the 42 submissions that were made there were references to, for instance, areas of the rights of women, and that potentially the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner role could include looking at the rights and responsibilities for women under that as well. There was also another submission that talked about issues around the fairness in the Act around Treaty of Waitangi claims. That was another submission that was made. We feel that the amended changes will allow for the commissioner to be able—with consultation on the strategic direction of the commission—to potentially appoint part-time commissioners to this role as well.

There was some concern that was expressed around the rebranding and existence of the specialised commissioners by removing the titles of the Race Relations Commissioner and the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner, which may be perceived as lowering the profile of these particular areas of focus. We do not believe that the proposed changes will negatively impact on the commissioners’ leadership role of protecting and promoting these particular areas of importance as well. There will be identified commissioners leading the work in each area, and the commissioner will be the face and the contact point in being able to negotiate these areas of importance as well.

We feel the recommendations that have been made adequately address the issues of the review plus the concerns. We feel, as a select committee, that our recommendations, approved by the Minister, are appropriate but also give both the flexibility and the clarity for the commissioner to conduct his roles and responsibilities. On behalf of the Government, I also do commend this bill to the House in its second reading.

The question was put that the amendments recommended by the Justice and Electoral Committee by majority be agreed to.