Joe Karam says Judith Collins' handling of David Bain's compensation claim has painted New Zealand "as some sort of a third-world Mugabe state", and ruined the chances of finding a qualified person to conduct a new report.
Mr Bain filed his claim in 2010 after being found not guilty of murdering his family at his retrial in 2009. Then-Minister of Justice Simon Power hired former Canadian Supreme Court judge Ian Binnie to look at the claim, and in 2012 he concluded Mr Bain was innocent on the balance of probabilities so should be compensated for the 13 years he spent in prison.
But Ms Collins, who took over as Justice Minister after Mr Power quit Parliament in 2011, ordered Justice Binnie's report be peer-reviewed by Robert Fisher, QC. He concluded it was inaccurate and that Justice Binnie misunderstood New Zealand law, so it couldn't be used.
With $600,000 already spent looking into the claim, current Minister of Justice Amy Adams announced yesterday a fresh report would be commissioned at a cost of $400,000, ignoring the Binnie and Fisher reports.
Mr Karam, longtime spokesman for Mr Bain, says it's a waste of time and money as there is no new evidence, and the errors Mr Fisher found in Justice Binnie's report were "semantical", not factual.
"In my lifetime… I cannot find another example of a government commissioning a high-level report and then throwing it in the rubbish tip. This is the only instance," he said on Firstline this morning.
"This is not a court case – you just go out and interview whoever you like, read whatever you like, get submissions from Karam and get submissions from the police, whatever it is, interview people – which he did – and then give us your opinion.
"Now, Fisher comes along and says, 'He didn't understand New Zealand law.' Well, what an insult, for a start – this is one of the world's top judges. When Simon Power appointed Justice Binnie, he said, 'One of the reasons that I am getting a Canadian judge is because their compensation regime is very similar to that of New Zealand.'
"So look, the Fisher report was a hatchet job to muddy the waters, which was very effectively done."
But Ms Collins is standing by her decision to throw out Justice Binnie's report.
"I did exactly what I had to do," she told the New Zealand Herald.
Public law specialist Grant Illingworth, QC, says Ms Collins could have accepted Justice Binnie's report despite any errors it might have contained.
"It would have been possible at that stage for the Minister of Justice to say well, there may be errors in this report, but we're going to accept the conclusions anyway," he said on Firstline. "Without knowing the detail of the reasons why the Binnie report was rejected, it's hard to comment on that point."
He says the decision to commission a new report is "absolutely extraordinary" but perhaps an "understandable compromise" between the Government and the Bain team.
"I think the public will be completely bemused and bewildered about this whole situation. We've got David Bain convicted in 1995… he gets eventually a retrial after a hearing in the Privy Council in 2009, he applies for compensation in 2010, and here we are in 2015 still twiddling our fingers, wondering what to do about it."
Mr Illingworth says it will be interesting to see who the Government taps to conduct the third report – and doubts it'll be anyone from New Zealand, having already gone overseas to find someone neutral.
"The Binnie report was done on the basis that Justice Binnie was a highly respected judge with international standing, one of the top judges in Canada, had the respect of people throughout the Commonwealth; and they're going to have to find someone of commensurate standing to take his place, I would have thought."
Mr Karam has doubts whether the Government will be able to find anyone of high enough standing without an opinion on the Bain case to look at it.
"We, that is the Bain team, don't think that it's appropriate for anybody from New Zealand to do it, because whatever happens, there will be misgivings about it from someone. If we go offshore, well, after the way the Government treated Justice Binnie, I don't know how many judges from around the world are going to be putting their hands up to come and do this job," he says.
"I think that Judith Collins' behaviour and descriptions of Justice Binnie effectively painted us as some sort of a third-world Mugabe state. That's certainly going to be Amy Adams' big job – finding the right person."
Mr Karam says he has never met Ms Adams and has no reason to doubt her skills and integrity, but believes she is an "invidious" position.
"The new inquirer can only find what Binnie found – and Binnie was in no doubt."
3 News
source: newshub archive
