Ellen Dolour France is a Supreme Court of New Zealand Justice and her husband Simon is a High Court Justice. Together they have received over $12.6 Million in judicial salaries since their appointments, $220,000 in expense allowances and an additional $4.74 Million Crown contribution to their retirement accounts. They are among New Zealand’s richest couples on retirement assets alone, having amassed an estimated $8.18 Million retirement fund from 2003, after the average Kiwisaver annual return of 6.69% since 2007 is applied.
The financial windfall results from perhaps the most lucrative retirement scheme in the world outside authoritarian regimes and is unique in New Zealand to 220 judges: a scheme which matches New Zealand judges superannuation contributions of 5% of salaries with a further 37.5% from the government. This $7.50 matching contribution for each $1.00 paid in by the judge means Chief Justice Helen Winkelmann will in 2020 receive a $208,900 retirement contribution from taxpayers in addition to her salary, fringe benefits and travel allowances.
The Remuneration Authority – the government agency set up under the Remuneration Authority Act 1977 as “solely responsible for determining the salaries, principal allowances and superannuation entitlements for the judges” – is expected to approve over $29 million in total superannuation entitlements for New Zealand’s insular judicial community in 2020.
The Renumeration Authority is administered by three political appointees, appointed for renewable three-year terms. Labour party politician Fran Wilde has been Chair since 2015, business consultant Geoffrey Summers was appointed deputy chair in January 2016 and government statistician Len Cook became the third current member later that year. Their annual budget is such a closely guarded national secret that its director Mike Kunz claimed not to know what it is when this information was requested under the Official Information Act 1982.
Kiwisfirst additionally sought unsuccessfully information from the Authority on its determinations in respect to judicial entitlements. Despite being the statutory body solely responsible for making such determinations, Mr Kunz claimed the Remuneration Authority did not have information concerning how much it had approved in judicial entitlements for any given year, or even how many judges it had determined to be eligible. He graciously responded repeatedly to questions rephrased to solicit informative responses as to the Authority’s function with the seemingly inescapable reply “the Authority does not hold the information you requested” and on this basis was unable to provide it. He suggested the Ministry of Justice was the appropriate agency to provide the answers but the Ministry of Justice suggested it was the Authority who made the determinations and would have the information.
Perhaps worthy of note, section 9 of the Remuneration Authority Act 1977 is titled “Members and officers to maintain secrecy” and provides criminal penalties for those breaching its requirement that, “Every member of the Authority and every person engaged or employed in connection with the work of the Authority shall maintain and aid in maintaining the secrecy of all matters which come to his knowledge when carrying out his functions or duties under this Act, and shall not communicate any such matters to any person except in the discharge of his functions and duties under this Act.”
Research for this article in part provided by Malcolm E Rabson
