Data collected to view diversity within judiciary
WELLINGTON: The judiciary is gathering more information about judges’ backgrounds including their sexuality and religious status.
It comes after a report revealed nine out of 10 judges in the High Court and Court of Appeal are Pakeha, and most are men.
The only information at present collected by the Ministry of Justice about all judges is their gender, ethnicity and age, although Crown Law collects some information about the legal experience of senior court judges immediately prior to their appointment.
According to a Stuff report, citing a leaked email to her colleagues, Chief Justice Dame Helen Winkelmann said recent media coverage had ‘‘created inaccurate narratives’’ about the makeup of the judiciary.
The Chief Justice did not respond to RNZ’s questions asking what the ‘‘inaccurate narratives’’ were in RNZ’s reporting of the issue.
‘‘The statistical information currently collected about the judiciary is insufficient to provide an accurate narrative on the diversity within the judiciary. The Judicial Diversity Survey has been designed to ensure more comprehensive information is gathered,’’ a spokesman from the Office of the Chief Justice said.
The survey, sent to judges earlier this month, would gather better information about ‘‘the life and work experience of our judges’’.
‘‘Questions were asked on broader aspects of diversity — such as disability, sexual orientation, educational backgrounds of parents as an indicator of socioeconomic background, and areas of legal practice prior to judicial appointment.
‘‘This will enable us to tell a more accurate and complete story of our current judiciary, which the present information available does not do, and to plan for judicial appointments in the future.’’
It is unclear if the survey results will be made public.
Victoria University associate law professor Dean Knight had called for ‘‘invisible minorities,’’ including the LGBT+ community or those from different religions, to be collected in diversity efforts.
Such information was not at present collected about the judiciary but it should be, he told RNZ last month.
‘‘We used to have the pretence to say judges could wear the black robes and the wigs and be anonymous, because there was this sort of vision of law, which is very mechanical.
‘‘The modern understanding is that background in terms of values, in terms of life experience, in terms of membership of different diversity groups, feeds into and influences the exercise of discretion that judges use.
‘‘A judge’s background will influence how they go about that,’’ he said.
Despite attempts to increase judicial diversity over the past decade, data obtained by RNZ from the Attorneygeneral’s Judicial Appointments Unit showed that it was still mostly Pakeha male lawyers who put their hands up to be a judge.
As of April, 86% of people who had expressed interest in becoming a High Court judge were
Pakeha. Only 6% were Maori and 7% were classed as ‘‘other’’.
Overall, less than a third of applicants were women.
In the District Court, nearly threequarters of lawyers who expressed interest in becoming a District Court judge were Pakeha, 11% were Maori and 3% Pasifika.
Just over half of the applicants were men.
Overall, 79% of judges across the country identify as Pakeha, compared 15% Maori, Ministry of Justice data showed. In the District Court 76% identify as Pakeha. — RNZ