Notes written by Kevin Felstead with some additions from Brent and Gwen.

CJPA attendees: Kevin Felstead, Gwen Mitchell, Rod Paton, Brent Philip and Danny Nicholls 

(Garth Dale was unable to attend at the last minute due to a family illness)

Friday 1 March

Programme commenced 11.30 am with the Mihi whakatau and official opening.

Hon Nicole McKee Associate Minister of Justice and Minister for the Courts addressed the Conference. She expressed the Ministry of Justice appreciation of the work carried out by Judicial and Ministerial JPs and Issuing Officers, there are 200+ Judicial JPs and 300 Issuing Officers and there is 1 JP per 937 people in NZ

Early days but impression gained she will listen to us and be a supportive Minister.

Annual General Meeting

Board Federation Review was discussed. Unfortunately this debate was a shambles. There was a lot of confusion, misunderstanding and negativity about the review and the process to get it adopted. It was agreed to take the recommendations separately. The first set of recommendations (of a total of 10) took at least the first hour and was eventually carried (37 for & 22 against); during the debate on the second set of recommendations it became obvious that there was overall dissatisfaction with the process and lack of detail in the report and lack of answers to many questions raised and it was moved that the report be withdrawn, this was carried (28 for & 22 against).

Because of the feeling in the room we abstained from the vote. It became obvious that Auckland (12) and Canterbury (6) together (with a few other associations) held the balance of power and it would have been unfortunate if Auckland and Canterbury pushed it through when so many other (smaller) Associations were unhappy.

So it is back to the drawing board for the review.

Statement of Financial Performance up to 30/6/23 presented and adopted. Report showed deficit of $43,775

There was 1 Remit and 1 Notice of Motion:

Notice of Motion by South Taranaki to amend constitution for National Conference to be held every second year with an AGM to be held on alternative years by zoom.

Kevin spoke against the motion noting that there was considerable value in face to face contact with other JPs and some business (e.g. Federation Restructure) would be near impossible to conduct successfully by zoom. NOT PASSED

Remit by Wairarapa relating to Justices who have been sworn in and successfully completed induction training be granted automatic accreditation for 2 years.

Rod spoke against this remit noting that induction training is quite different from the accreditation training. THE REMIT WAS LOST.

Future Conference Venues discussed.
2024 was Hawkes Bay but given state of emergency through weather they had deferred until 2027.

2025 West Coast (14 – 16 March Shanty Town, Greymouth).
2026 Otago
2027 Hawkes Bay

2028 Gisborne
2029 Waikato

Fixing Charges and Levies. (another embarrassing shambles). 

After lots of debate the recommendation to increase the Capitation Levy to $25 from $20 was lost, the deletion of the Communication grant from $3000 to $0 was carried. Between the increased capitation fee and loss of the Communication Grant this would have had a net effect of an $8 increase per member (CJPA).

Then the budget was presented, based on the capitation fee being $25, but with this having been lost it took some time to recalculate but it was agreed that the resultant substantial deficit was not a good idea so a second vote was taken on the increase of the capitation fees and this time it was carried.

Day finished with most enjoyable visit and buffet in the Grand Hall in Parliament hosted by The Speaker of the House Gerry Brownlee.

Saturday 2 March 

Chief District Court Judge Heemi Taumaunu spoke to us, he acknowledged all the work that JPs do to keep the Justice system ticking over and the important role our Judicial Justices play.

Three workshops were held in the afternoon:

• Communication for Modern Times facilitated by Carol Buckley; 
• Justice of the Peace Succession Planning – Selling the Sizzle facilitated by Dale Williams;
• Sovereign Citizens – What are the Issues? facilitated by Graeme Kitto.

All three workshops were interactive, excellent presentations.

Presidents and Registrars met separately.
I attended my first Registrars meeting. Tony Pugh presided and started by asking attendees to” let him have it” (as is usual apparently), it appeared to be an opportunity for Registrars to let Tony know what is wrong in the world of JP Registrars. The major issue is the time taken between a person being nominated by an MP and the time to be sworn in (in some cases over a year). Tony explained the process and said that the hold ups can be with MPs (some new ones don’t know what to do with applications or don’t make them a priority). Sometimes they are held up by the Ministry of Justice who need to do checks (including Police Checks). He assured those present that there are no delays in his office.

Also learnt that most Associations (smaller ones) have joint Registrars/Treasurers. It was agreed that there would be benefit if there was an opportunity for Treasurers to meet separately

Presidents' Report.

The new RF President Nigel Tate made it clear he was most unhappy Associations had voted initially against approving capitation increase. Said RF knew some Associations had surplus reserves and it wouldn’t hurt them to donate to RF one year of their members subscriptions. I hadn’t seen any restraint forecast in their budget, so I mentioned this also saying I had noted the RF President honorarium had been increased from $7500 to $12,000. Interesting discussion from that point.

Positives.....he is to investigate platform for Presidents' web page.

Mentioned online log book would be good so JPs could log on and log their hours and work. This would help build good record to present to Government to help in funding quest.

Lovely Centennial dinner that evening. All the past Presidents were honoured and made speeches.

Sunday 3 March 

Working breakfast.

Guest speakers: Christopher Finlayson KC and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Paul Spoonley FRSNC spoke to the conference.

Both speakers were entertaining and informative

Conference closed approximately 12 noon.

Thank you Gwen, Rod, Danny and Brent for your Company and support. It was lovely having Catherine and Maree along.

The conference was enjoyed by all (including each others' company).