Supreme and Federal Courts Judges’ Conference

E nga mana, e nga reo, e nga iwi o te motu e huihui nei, tēnei aku mihi nui ki a koutou.

My very warmest welcome to you all to Ōtautahi Christchurch. I wish to specifically acknowledge: Rt Hon Dame Helen Winkelmann, Chief Justice of New Zealand; Justice James Stevenson, Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Chair of the Conference Steering Committee; Justice David Collins, Judge of the Court of Appeal and New Zealand Representative on the Steering Committee; and all members of represented judiciaries and your spouses and partners here today.

Tēnā koutou katoa. I understand the last time this group was able to gather was three years ago in Canberra – so it’s my great pleasure to be here with you all this morning, to open this year’s Supreme and Federal Courts Justices Conference.

While this conference was initially established as an Australian gathering, it has expanded to include judges from the superior courts of New Zealand and the Pacific. I’m pleased to note that Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon of Singapore is also in attendance and will be speaking later on in the programme.

The theme of the conference – ‘tuia ki te muka tangata – the ties that bind us’ – seems especially apt: focussing on issues and philosophies shared across our respective judiciaries.

For superior court judges of Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific, we of course share a legal ancestry – in turn adapting the Westminster system of common law to our own settings and circumstances.

As judiciaries, we also face many of the same issues: responding to the pandemic and overseas conflict, dealing with the dissemination of information and disinformation, and the undermining of public trust in governments and judiciaries – all issues I see feature in the conference programme.

In times of such uncertainty and transition, with so many deeply embedded tensions present across our society, and with 2023 likely to be another challenging year on both the domestic and international stage, the role of an independent judiciary, equipped to support our constitutional arrangements, is crucial – the most recent example of course being in the case of the Samoan elections.

My own constitutional role as the Governor-General has been an opportunity for me to participate in a unique way in the application of New Zealand law: from giving assent to legislation, to holding powers of the Royal prerogative of mercy, to acknowledging members of the judiciary through our Royal Honours system.

As someone without formal legal training, these responsibilities have also given me a renewed and deepened appreciation for our judiciary, and the difficult work you do in service of society: work which requires great insight, conviction, and courage.

New Zealand’s judiciary has particular cause to be proud of its work with indigenous communities through Ngā Kōti Rangatahi and Pasifika Youth Courts – seeking to achieve restorative justice through the integration of tikanga into the legal framework, and building stronger connections between courts and the communities they serve.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank you all for your commitment, as quoted in the New Zealand Judicial Oath, ‘to do right to all manner of people … without fear or favour, affection or ill will’.

I would also like to take this opportunity to specifically thank Dame Helen and Dame Susan Glazebrook – both of whom have acted in the Administrator’s role while I’ve been fulfilling duties overseas, and who I suspect may be asked to do so again.

To our overseas guests, while many of you may be familiar with New Zealand, I hope you have the opportunity to experience a little more of our country while you are here, and to spend some time exploring one of New Zealand’s most beautiful cities.

In the meantime, I wish you all a rewarding and enjoyable few days – and will leave you with my godfather’s favourite lines from The Merchant of Venice, whose meaning remains as immediate and poignant as ever:

The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

It gives me great pleasure to declare the Supreme and Federal Courts Judges’ Conference open.

Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.