Government departments can be prosecuted under new law

5.45pm

Government departments can be prosecuted in the same way as private companies under legislation passed by Parliament today.

The law change is a direct result of the 1995 Cave Creek tragedy, when a West Coast viewing platform built by the Department of Conservation collapsed and 14 people were killed.

The Crown Organisations (Criminal Liability) Bill removes exemption from prosecution for offences under the Building Act and the Health and Safety in Employment Act.

Justice Minister Phil Goff said it was a key recommendation of Judge Graeme Noble who investigated the tragedy, and changed the longstanding principle that the Crown was immune from criminal prosecution.

"The Government believes there is no justification for allowing its departments to be exempt from health and safety and building laws that we require every other New Zealand business to abide by," he said.

"The removal of the exemption will provide incentives for the Crown to avoid instances of systemic failure -- an aspect highlighted in the Noble report -- and will provide for greater accountability if a breach does occur."

Mr Goff said a court would be able to order reparation payments to victims, and make orders instructing the Crown to address the problem which led to the offence.

National and ACT opposed the bill, which was given its final third reading on a vote of 82-33.

Mr Goff accused National -- which held office in 1995 -- of still refusing to accept responsibility.

"Even after seven years, National is still in denial, still refusing to implement the recommendations put in place by the commission of inquiry that the National government set up," he said.

"The National Party prevaricated, and by the time it left office had failed to implement the last and most significant of those recommendations."

National MP Richard Worth said Mr Goff's remarks were not worth a response.

The reason National did not support the bill was that it breached the constitutional rule that the Crown was immune from prosecution.

"It's a hard-headed constitutional law principle which is in place in every country in the western world which has legal systems patterned on the Westminster system," he said.

"And New Zealand has decided to go it alone, and for the first time make a whole lot of crown organisations criminally liable."

Those organisations included the Building Industry Authority, the police and the defence force.

"We have now set in train a set of events the consequences of which may be truly far-reaching," Mr Worth said.

Mr Worth said the Government was breaching a settled constitutional principle.

"What I find scary about this is it seems to have done so not as a basis of deliberate action, but rather on the basis of a misunderstanding and a failure to recognise that other mechanisms are available," he said.

"What I would characterise it as is pig-headedness -- a deliberate decision to ignore the rule of law and instead pursue legislation based seemingly on political correctness."

Mr Worth said that if the Crown Law Office decided to prosecute a government department, the prosecution and the defence would both come from the same office.

"The workability of this legislation remains very much up in the air."

He said chief executives of crown organisations were criminally responsible under present law, and compensation regimes were available under civil law.

ACT MP Gerry Eckhoff said the bill was window dressing, and the Government was trying to give the impression that Parliament was doing something about addressing crown negligence.

"We will not support this bill because we do not believe it extends to the public the sort of protection and accountability they expect," he said.

- NZPA