Roger Partridge: Another Judge-Made House of Cards.....

Another Judge-Made House of Cards: Why Council Liability Reforms Won’t Save Us From the Perils of Judicial Lawmaking

In August 2025, the Government announced the biggest reform to New Zealand’s building consent system in two decades. The problem? Councils facing massive liability for building defects have become so risk-averse that the entire consenting system has seized up.

Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk cited the scale of exposure: in one Queenstown case, ratepayers faced potential liability of $160 million for weathertight defects. Had the case not been settled privately, it could have meant rates increases of $300 per household per year for 30 years.

Roger Partridge: Supreme Court matters - charities law and judicial social engineering

My recent report, Who Makes the Law? Reining in the Supreme Court,[i] has sparked widespread debate about judicial overreach by the Supreme Court. Most of the commentary and feedback has been very positive. But some have suggested that cases like Ellis v R and Fitzgerald v R were merely outliers rather than symptoms of a deeper problem.[ii]