Bill Hastings After 11 years as Chief Censor, Bill Hastings has been appointed a District Court Judge and head of the new Immigration and Protection Tribunal. Hastings has been appointed to the role by Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson. The Tribunal, which must be chaired by a District Court Judge, will decide all immigration, deportation, refugee and protection appeals in New Zealand. It will replace four existing appeal bodies; the Refugee Status Appeals Authority, the Removal Review Authority, the Residence Review Board and the Deportation Review Tribunal. Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman says the Tribunal has a critical role to play in New Zealand fulfilling its international humanitarian obligations. "It will maintain and build on the very strong reputation of the existing appeal bodies." Born in Canada, Hastings holds a BA from the University of Toronto, and law degrees from Osgoode Hall Law School and the London School of Economics. Before becoming Chief Censor, he was Senior Lecturer in Law Deputy Dean of Law, and a member of the governing Council at Victoria University of Wellington. Over his career as Chief Censor, the openly-gay Wellingtonian has been attacked by groups such as the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards, Destiny Church, Michael Laws and Deputy New Zealand First leader Peter Brown, who have accused him of having a gay agenda. Hastings responded to one such attack in 2007: "I'm not a moral guardian. I just apply the law… I couldn't do my job if I was on some pro-gay crusade. Those claims are always based on really hurtful stereotypes, which are totally ridiculous and false," he said. Mr Hastings will be sworn in at Wellington on 9 July. An announcement on who will be the new Chief Censor has not yet been made.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Tuesday, 22nd June 2010 - 9:48am