Hon Christopher Finlayson
Attorney-General

27 February 2013

New Immigration and Protection Tribunal Chair appointed

Judge Carrie Wainwright has been appointed the new Chairperson of the Immigration and Protection Tribunal, Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson announced today.

She replaces Judge W K (Bill) Hastings, who will sit full-time on the District Court.

The Tribunal is an independent body established to hear appeals and applications regarding residence class visas, deportation (including appeals on the facts and humanitarian grounds) and claims to be recognised as a refugee or as a protected person.

Prior to her appointment to the Bench, Judge Wainwright was a partner in Buddle Findlay. She was appointed as a Māori Land Court Judge in 2000 and served on the Waitangi Tribunal for ten years, including six years as the Deputy Chairperson. Since 2010, Judge Wainwright has sat on the District Court Bench in Wellington.

ENDS

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Arguably Reassuring: Inspector-General Finds GCSB "Arguably" Legal

Of the 88 individuals:

• 15 cases involving 22 individuals did not have any information intercepted by GCSB.

• another four cases involving five individuals were the subjects of a New Zealand Security Intelligence Service warrant and the GCSB assisted in the execution of the warrants. The Inspector-General is of the view that there were arguably no breaches and the law is unclear.

• the Bureau only provided technical assistance which did not involve interception of communications, involving three of the individuals, so no breach occurred.

• the remaining cases involved the collection of metadata, and the Inspector-General formed the view that there had arguably been no breach, noting once again that the law is unclear.
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