Attorney-General (New Zealand)
Attorney-General of New Zealand | |
---|---|
Te Rōia Matua o Aotearoa (Māori) | |
Crown Law Office Parliamentary Counsel Office Serious Fraud Office | |
Style | The Honourable |
Member of | |
Reports to | advice of the prime minister |
Term length | At His Majesty's pleasure |
Formation | 7 May 1856 |
First holder | Frederick Whitaker |
Salary | $288,900[1] |
Website | www.beehive.govt.nz |
New Zealand portal |
The Attorney-General (
Responsibilities and powers
The Attorney-General has two main areas of official responsibility. Firstly, the Attorney-General has ministerial jurisdiction over the Crown Law Office, the Parliamentary Counsel Office, and the Serious Fraud Office.[4] Secondly, the Attorney-General is the principal law officer of the Crown, responsible for supervising the state's administration of the law and for providing legal advice to the government.[4] This includes upholding the rule of law[5] and advising on compliance with domestic and international obligations.[6] In the latter role (but strictly not in the former), the Attorney-General is assisted by the Solicitor-General, a non-partisan official.[4] This is to reduce the extent to which the Attorney-General's actions on behalf of the state (as opposed to the government) can be influenced by their political allegiance.[7]
A more complete description of the Attorney-General's powers can be found in the briefings to the incoming Attorney-General prepared by the Crown Law Office (most recently in 2020).
At present, there is no statutory basis which establishes the office of Attorney-General, although the position is referenced by a number of other legal documents, such as the
There is no constitutional duty on the government to follow the advice of the law officers.[10] The Cabinet Manual outlines the process by which the legal advice provided by the Attorney-General (and others) may be disclosed.[11]
The Attorney-General is also responsible for advising the Governor-General on who should be appointed judges of the courts of New Zealand.[12]
History
The post of Attorney-General has existed since the separation of New Zealand as a distinct
Historically, the post could be held either by a politician or by a senior jurist, but today, it is invariably held by a member of Parliament. The Attorney-General is a member of the Executive Council and is usually appointed as a member of the Cabinet. (An exception is when David Lange was appointed Attorney-General outside Cabinet from 1989 to 1990.)
By tradition, persons appointed to the position of Attorney-General have been lawyers. Only two former Attorneys-General have not been lawyers, most recently Dr.
The table below is an incomplete listing of New Zealand politicians who have held political appointment as Attorney-General since 1856. It does not show non-political attorneys-general. There were two previous Attorneys-General before responsible government was introduced in New Zealand in 1856: Francis Fisher who held office for less than one year in 1841, and William Swainson who held office until 7 May 1856. Peter Wilkinson was the half-brother of his successor, Jim McLay.
List of attorneys-general
- Key
Independent Liberal Reform United Labour National
No. | Name | Portrait | Term of office | Prime Minister | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Frederick Whitaker | 7 May 1856 | 20 May 1856 | Sewell | |||
2 | William Fox | 20 May 1856 | 2 June 1856 | Fox | |||
(1) | Frederick Whitaker | 2 June 1856 | 12 July 1861 | Stafford | |||
(2) | William Fox | 12 July 1861 | 2 August 1861 | Fox | |||
3 | Henry Sewell | 2 August 1861 | 6 August 1862 | ||||
4 | Thomas Gillies | 6 August 1862 | 23 August 1862 | Domett | |||
(3) | Henry Sewell | 23 August 1862 | 1 January 1863 | ||||
(1) | Frederick Whitaker | 1 January 1863 | 24 November 1864 | ||||
Whitaker | |||||||
(3) | Henry Sewell | 24 November 1864 | 16 October 1865 | Weld | |||
5 | James Prendergast | 16 October 1865 | 1 September 1876 | Stafford | |||
(1) | Frederick Whitaker | 1 September 1876 | 13 October 1877 | Atkinson | |||
6 | Robert Stout | 13 October 1877 | 8 October 1879 | Grey | |||
(1) | Frederick Whitaker | 21 April 1882 | 25 September 1883 | Whitaker | |||
7 | Edward Conolly | 25 September 1883 | 16 August 1884 | Atkinson | |||
(6) | Robert Stout | 16 August 1884 | 8 October 1887 | Stout | |||
(1) | Frederick Whitaker | 11 October 1887 | 24 January 1891 | Atkinson | |||
8 | Patrick Buckley | 24 January 1891 | 20 December 1895 | Ballance | |||
Seddon | |||||||
9 | Albert Pitt | 22 June 1903 | 18 November 1906 | ||||
Hall-Jones | |||||||
Ward | |||||||
10 | John Findlay | 18 November 1906 | 26 December 1911 | ||||
- | Josiah Hanan acting |
28 March 1912 | 10 July 1912 | Mackenzie | |||
11 | Alexander Herdman | 10 July 1912 | 4 February 1918 | Massey | |||
12 | Francis Bell | 4 February 1918 | 18 January 1926 | ||||
Bell | |||||||
Coates | |||||||
13 | William Downie Stewart Jr | 18 January 1926 | 24 May 1926 | ||||
14 | Frank Rolleston | 24 May 1926 | 10 December 1928 | ||||
15 | Thomas Sidey | 10 December 1928 | 22 September 1931 | Ward | |||
Forbes | |||||||
(13) | William Downie Stewart Jr | 22 September 1931 | 28 January 1933 | ||||
16 | George Forbes | 28 January 1933 | 6 December 1935 | ||||
17 | Rex Mason | 6 December 1935 | 13 December 1949 | Savage | |||
Fraser | |||||||
18 | Clifton Webb | 13 December 1949 | 26 November 1954 | Holland | |||
19 | Jack Marshall | 26 November 1954 | 12 December 1957 | ||||
Holyoake | |||||||
(17) | Rex Mason | 12 December 1957 | 12 December 1960 | Nash | |||
20 | Ralph Hanan | 12 December 1960 | 22 December 1969 | Holyoake | |||
(19) | Jack Marshall | 22 December 1969 | 2 February 1971 | ||||
21 | Dan Riddiford | 2 February 1971 | 9 February 1972 | ||||
22 | Roy Jack | 9 February 1972 | 8 December 1972 | Marshall | |||
23 | Martyn Finlay | 8 December 1972 | 12 December 1975 | Kirk | |||
Rowling | |||||||
24 | Peter Wilkinson | 12 December 1975 | 13 December 1978 | Muldoon | |||
25 | Jim McLay | 13 December 1978 | 26 July 1984 | ||||
26 | Geoffrey Palmer | 26 July 1984 | 4 August 1989 | Lange | |||
27 | David Lange | 4 August 1989 | 2 November 1990 | Palmer | |||
Moore | |||||||
28 | Paul East | 2 November 1990 | 5 December 1997 | Bolger | |||
29 | Doug Graham | 5 December 1997 | 10 December 1999 | ||||
Shipley | |||||||
30 | Margaret Wilson | 10 December 1999 | 28 February 2005 | Clark | |||
31 | Michael Cullen | 28 February 2005 | 19 October 2005 | ||||
32 | David Parker | 19 October 2005 | 21 March 2006 | ||||
(31) | Michael Cullen | 21 March 2006 | 19 November 2008 | ||||
33 | Chris Finlayson | 19 November 2008 | 26 October 2017 | Key | |||
English | |||||||
(32) | David Parker | 26 October 2017 | 27 November 2023 | Ardern | |||
Hipkins | |||||||
34 | Judith Collins | 27 November 2023 | Incumbent | Luxon |
External links
References
- ^ "Parliamentary Salaries and Allowances Determination 2016" (PDF). www.parliament.nz.
- ^ "Rōia Matua - te Aka Māori Dictionary".
- ^ Clayton, CW (1995). Government Lawyers: The Federal Legal Bureaucracy and Presidential Politics. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press. p. 13.
- ^ a b c Briefing Paper for the Attorney-General (Crown Law Office, October 2017) at 3.
- ^ Cabinet Office, Cabinet Manual 2017, at [4.3].
- ^ "CO (16) 2: Cabinet Directions for the Conduct of Crown Legal Business 2016". Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
- ^ Brookfield (1979). "The Attorney-General". New Zealand Law Journal: 336.
- ^ Constitution Act 1986, s 9A.
- ^ Cabinet Office, Cabinet Manual 2017, [4.2]–[4.5].
- ^ McLachlan, Campbell (2014). Foreign Relations Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. [4.35].
- ^ Cabinet Office, Cabinet Manual 2017, at [4.63–4.72].
- ^ "Judicial appointments | The District Court of New Zealand". www.districtcourts.govt.nz. Retrieved 2 February 2023.
- ^ Paterson, Donald Edgar (1966), "Findlay, the Hon. Sir John George", An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock, retrieved 10 May 2008
- ^ OCLC 154283103.