Labour high-flyer quits JP position

Steven Ching did not know about his convictions, the Labour Party says. Picture / Chris Skelton

High-flying Labour candidate Steven Ching has resigned as a Justice of the Peace after the discovery of two undisclosed convictions.

But the Labour Party argues he did not know he had been convicted, and despite his offer to resign says his place on the party list is secure.

The Government is being challenged by the Federation of Justices over how Mr Ching's application to become a JP got through the Justice Ministry vetting system and police computer checks.

Associate Justice Minister Rick Barker ordered an inquiry after the Herald on Sunday revealed last month that Mr Ching had pleaded guilty to obstructing justice but escaped without a conviction.

On Friday Mr Barker wrote to Mr Ching - a top party fundraiser on the cusp of becoming Labour's first Chinese MP - accepting his resignation as a JP.

Labour Party president Mike Williams said the party had discovered two convictions, on top of the guilty plea, that Mr Ching had not disclosed. Mr Ching had been convicted and fined $475 under the Fisheries Act for employing an unregistered auditor, and had been convicted and fined $250 for filing his audit late.

"Steven seems to have been genuinely unaware of the two subsequent convictions," Mr Williams said.

The party council found that Mr Ching had not "knowingly misled" the party, and that the convictions were not criminal. "He thought no conviction had been entered. We thought, as a party council, that was a credible position, so we advised him his list position was not in doubt."

The Labour candidate declaration asks for details of any "criminal" convictions, but the Justice of the Peace application form asks about any convictions.

After last month's news reports, Mr Ching's lawyer had requested his conviction record from the police and handed it to the party council, Mr Williams said.

Federation of New Zealand Justices president Allan Spence is now demanding to know how Mr Ching made it through the Justice Ministry background checks and vetting.

"We have had mail from JPs expressing concern that this fellow was able to get as far as he did, because it reflects poorly on all of us," Mr Spence said.

Mr Barker said that any vetting process was unfortunately subject to lapses, and "we just have to be more careful".

But he refused, on privacy grounds, to say whether a police computer check had been done on Mr Ching's application.

Since then, he said, the process had been tightened to require two community references and a report from the Federation of Justices.

And he hoped to table a draft bill by the end of the year that would give the minister a range of options for dealing with problems with JPs.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY