Remuneration Authority Legislation Bill

on behalf of the Associate Minister of Justice: I move, That the Remuneration Authority Legislation Bill be now read a third time.

The Remuneration Authority Legislation Bill will enhance public confidence in our judicial system by making—

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Barbara Kuriger): Excuse me. Sorry, Minister Hipkins, do you have a legislative statement?

Oh yes, I do. I present a legislative statement.

ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Barbara Kuriger): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. The bill will enhance public confidence in our judicial system by making changes relating to the responsibility to determine the remuneration of some statutory and judicial officers.

If I run through the list of who is covered by this: Disputes Tribunal referees, community magistrates of the District Court, the chairperson and deputy chairperson of the Human Rights Review Tribunal, the deputy chairperson and members of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal, the Environment Commissioners and Deputy Environment Commissioners of the Environment Court, and Tenancy Tribunal adjudicators.

It was deemed that these officers should be independent of the Cabinet Fees Framework and have their remuneration determined by the Remuneration Authority rather than the Government of the day, in an independent review conducted by MartinJenkins back in 2018. An independent principles-based review was undertaken to determine whether it should be the Cabinet Fees Framework or the Remuneration Authority that should determine the mechanism for setting the remuneration of those statutory and judicial officers, and it concluded that the principal difference between the Remuneration Authority and the Cabinet Fees Framework was the degree of independence from Government with regard to those remuneration decisions. The Government does agree with that. It agrees that those positions would be better determined independently of the Government of the day, and hence this legislation gives effect to that.

My understanding is that the bill has been considered by the select committee with a unanimous recommendation that it be passed, and therefore I commend the bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Look, we support the bill at the final reading. The bill’s a simple change which will give an added layer of political neutrality to the setting of fees for judicial officers, which we think is a good thing. We do want to ensure that the five new permanent legislative authorities will remain small in size so that they do not balloon or allow the respect of judicial officers to increase dramatically. So we don’t want to have a perverse outcome with a ballooning of bureaucracy, but we see the need for it. We think it’s a good bill and we’re very happy to support it.

Thank you very much. The Remuneration Authority Legislation Bill was introduced back in 2021, and it transfers responsibility for determining the remuneration of certain judicial and statutory officers to the Remuneration Authority, to recognise the judicial nature of positions. This is a good bill, I support it wholeheartedly, and I commend it to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. As my colleague Mark Mitchell said, there is nothing too controversial in this bill at third reading today, the Remuneration Authority Legislation Bill. The National Party supports it. Thank you.

As retired US Supreme Court Justice O’Connell said, judicial independence does not happen all by itself. It’s hard to create, and it’s often easier than most people imagine to damage or destroy. This is a bill that’s all about protecting that independence, and I commend this bill to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. This is a good bill, the Remuneration Authority Legislation Bill. It just puts into effect the outcomes of the independent review into remuneration for a number of public, independently appointed roles, and we certainly support the Government to adopt wherever there is an independent review of things as important as remuneration and treatment of public servants and independently appointed office holders. So it’s a good bill, and we support it at third reading.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Again, I stand on behalf of the ACT Party to speak to the Remuneration Authority Legislation Bill, one that we are in support of.

As mentioned in the second reading, it is a straightforward bill, moving some judicial and statutory officers away from the Cabinet fees framework to the Remuneration Authority. In doing this, it is an omnibus bill because it is amending seven Acts. It sounds like a lot, but it is covering two courts and four tribunals.

There was a Supplementary Order Paper which we all supported. It was fixing minor cross-referencing and made it clear that current remuneration of the affected officers are to remain the same until such time as the Remuneration Authority makes its first determination.

It’s in two parts, this bill. Part 1 authorises the Remuneration Authority to take over determinations from the Cabinet Fees Framework to the Remuneration Authority. Part 2 has six subparts that are specific to the six Acts governing those six groups of officers that are affected. Their pay and conditions are currently under the Cabinet Fees Framework and are administered by the Public Service Commission. So this allows each one of those sets of officers to also come under the Remuneration Authority.

Those involved in the move include officers in the disputes tribunal, community magistrates of the District Court, the chair and deputy of the Human Rights Review Tribunal, tenancy adjudicators from the Tenancy Tribunal, some commissioners of the Environment Court—yep, that’s all of them. So there’s not lots left to say here. We have well canvassed this in previous speeches and through the committee of the whole House stage.

This bill is about strengthening judicial independence, and, in doing so, we all hope that it will increase public confidence in these courts and tribunals. With that, we commend this bill to the House.

Madam Speaker, you would’ve noticed that my colleagues around the House agree with this bill. It’s a good bill—let’s pass it.

Hon Scott Simpson—five minutes.

Five full minutes! Well, where does one begin? I think that this is a good, practical, and prudent bill that we on this side of the House support. Thank you very much.

I will join with the chorus in commending this bill to the House.

It’s a pleasure to rise and support a bill which everybody in this House supports. Thank you very much.

This is a really good bill. I’m not going to go against the grain—I know there’s a lot of people looking at me. We’re waiting—looking at the clock. Well, it’s a fantastic bill. I think I’ve heard Simon Court’s voice more than anyone else this week, so I’m happy to stand and support this bill.

Great bill; I commend it to the House.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a third time.