The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Remuneration Authority Legislation Bill. The bill seeks to transfer responsibility for determining the pay of various judicial and statutory officers from the Cabinet Fees Framework to the Remuneration Authority.

The Government controls the Cabinet Fees Framework, but the Remuneration Authority is an independent statutory body which decides on pay for many judicial and statutory officers. Under the bill, responsibility for determining the pay of the following officers would move to the Remuneration Authority:

· Community Magistrates of the District Court

· Environment Commissioners and Deputy Environment Commissioners of the Environment Court

· Referees of the Disputes Tribunal

· the Chairperson and Deputy Chairpersons of the Human Rights Review Tribunal

· members and Deputy Chairs of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal

· Tenancy Adjudicators of the Tenancy Tribunal.

A recent review determined that, as these officers are judicial decision makers, their remuneration should be determined independently of the Government, by the Remuneration Authority. They have qualifications or roles similar to those whose pay is already determined by the Remuneration Authority. The bill’s explanatory note contains further detail on why each position has been included in this bill.

For more information on the development of the bill, you can read the Ministry of Justice’s departmental disclosure statement.

Tell the Justice Committee what you think

Make a submission on the bill by midnight on 17 December 2021.

Submissions will be publicly released by the committee and will be available on Parliament’s website. Submitters seeking to have their submissions considered privately or anonymously can contact committee staff at justice@parliament.govt.nz to discuss this.

For more details about the bill:

· Read the full content of the bill

· Get more details about the bill

· What’s been said in Parliament about the bill?

· Follow the committee’s Facebook page for updates
 

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