Peter Boshier has been the most recent Chief Ombudsman for New Zealand. His appointment in December 2015 followed a distinguished career as a Judge. In May 2020 he was reappointed for a second five-year term.
Boshier turned 72 last week on 16 March. "The law is that I must resign from office upon reaching the age of 72” he said.
New Zealand’s Constitution Act recognises three branches of government; Parliament, the Executive (Ministers and government departments), and the Judiciary. Each operates independently of the others, commonly called "the separation of powers".
The Chief Ombudsman is one of three officers of Parliament independent from the Executive. The other two are the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, and the Controller and Auditor-General. Neither of those two roles have a mandatory retirement age.
In the Judiciary, judges must retire from full-time judging at the age of 70, although they may be appointed for a further two years on an acting-warrant. It is said that security of tenure (permanent appointment), with a compulsory retirement age, are key protections for judicial independence.
Chief Executives in the Executive branch of government (government departments and crown entities) have no such security or independence. Under our Public Service Act and Crown Entities Act chief executives are appointed for terms of no more than 5 years, although there is the possibility of reappointment. Of course, this is an easy way to remove a Chief Executive who is perceived as being too old to do the job.
For our Members of Parliament there is no mandatory retirement age, although they do need to secure their seat in Parliament for the parliamentary term.
Our current Deputy Prime Minister turns 79 next month and is our oldest person ever to lead a party back to Parliament and into power (as part of a power sharing arrangement). His nearest rival was Labour’s Sir Walter Nash was 75 when he won the 1957 election. After being Prime Minister, Nash did go on to stay on as a Member of Parliament until his death at the age of 86, making him our oldest parliamentarian.
In the United States, President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump, are set for an election rematch in November after clinching their respective parties’ nominations. The contest will be between two candidates that many opinion polls suggest that many voters do not want. At 81, Biden is already the oldest president in US history with Trump being only a few years younger at 77.
Trump is facing 91 felony counts in four criminal cases, involving his handling of classified documents and his attempt to overturn the 2020 election, among other alleged crimes. Biden potentially faced charges over his handling of classified documents. However, the Special Counsel appointed to investigate decided not to bring charges. He cited Biden’s memory lapses in a bombshell report. His report described Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”, who “did not remember when he was vice-president” or “even within several years” when his son Beau had died.
For most of us in New Zealand, age is a prohibited ground of discrimination under the Human Rights Act, the Employment Relations Act, the Residential Tenancies Act and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
However, there are a few limited exceptions to this. There may be a particular age or a particular age group that has a genuine occupational qualification for employment. For example, some foreign countries prohibit pilots-in-command aged above 60 years from operating certain aircraft. In this situation, it may be justifiable for an airline to establish a policy which prohibits those over 60 from holding that position.
At the other end of the spectrum, New Zealanders have to be 18 years old to vote for our Parliament. The minimum legal age of marriage is 18 years. However, a person from age 16 can be married with consent from a Family Court judge.
For young workers under the age of 18, the law is fraught with exemptions. School-aged students (under the age of 16) work hours must be outside of school hours and must not be between 10pm and 6am. There is a special exception for the agricultural sector which allows young people doing contract work who are over the age of 12 years to use tractors for agricultural work provided they are fully trained or they live on the property. An under 14-year-old cannot work as a babysitter or nanny without adult supervision because it’s an offence to leave any child under 14 unsupervised. An under 15-year-old cannot work in hazardous worksites such as a logging site or construction site. To join the Defence Force a person must be at least 16 and a half to submit an application and must have turned 18 by the time they graduate from the recruit course.
We may throw comments around such as “70 is the new 50” or “age is just a number” but the reality is that our age may be important. Of course, those age barriers are potentially discriminatory. Read more....