The Dominion Post
March 24, 2004

Confidence warning on PCA job
by Tracy Watkins

The Green Party has refused to support the reappointment of Police Complaints Authority head Ian Borrin, as fresh questions are raised about its independence.

Green MP Nandor Tanczos yesterday called for a shakeup of the organisation as wider unease over its role in probing historic rape allegations against senior police surfaced. The Greens lodged their objection during what was expected to be a rubber stamping of Judge Borrin's reappointment by Parliament last night.

The reappointment was backed by the other political parties, but they also warned of a "crisis of confidence" in the police force.

Mr Tanczos said the PCA needed a shakeup. He referred to the "curiously contradictory" findings of two PCA reports into the investigations by former Rotorua CIB head John Dewar of historic sex allegations against fellow police.

Those allegations are now the subject of a commission of inquiry.

"The credibility of the Police Complaints Authority is under serious threat. The simmering discontent at the role and function of the authority that has been bubbling along in the public mind for a number of years has reached a heat that cannot be ignored . . . we believe that something has to give," Mr Tanczos said.

The Government has introduced legislation appointing specially trained investigators working independently of police on cases involving serious allegations of police misconduct.

ACT MP Muriel Newman said New Zealanders needed to have confidence in the police and the ability of the PCA to act independently. That should have been the case when the allegations by Louise Nicholas against Assistant Commissioner Clint Rickards and former police officers Brad Shipton and Bob Schollum were first made. The men have denied the allegations.

National MP Brian Connell said the party supported Judge Borrin's reappointment. But he warned that the PCA was viewed by many as "part of the old boy network".