Jonathan Temm (born 1963) LL.B (Hons) (Auck) is a New Zealand Barrister located in Rotorua. In 2010 he became the president of the New Zealand Law Society . <"ref=DailyPost_P.B001">Cherie Taylor, "Law chief keen to close the cracks", The Daily Post, 09 January 2010, p. B001.</ref>
Temm comes from Auckland. He was educated at St Peter's College. He went overseas for seven years in different jobs before returning to New Zealand to pursue a future in the law. He studied law at the University of Auckland and graduated in 1992 with honours. He won the Geoffrey Powell Scholarship and the Stout Shield for mooting while studying. He was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor at High Court in Auckland on the 11 June 1993. He is the son of the late Justice Paul Temm, a Judge of the High Court of New Zealand. He and his wife, Lynnelle, have five children aged from 8 to 18, Daniel, Paige, Matthew, Grace and Olivia. Temm loves cycling and is a keen fisherman, golfer, mountainbiker and tramper. <"ref=DailyPost_P.B001"/>
Temm began his career at Chapman Tripp in Auckland, joining Davys Burton in Rotorua in 1995, becoming a partner and senior Crown Solicitor before starting up as a barrister at Phoenix Chambers in 2005. He was president of the New Zealand Law Society's Bay of Plenty/Waikato branch and a member of legal services boards since 1992. Temm's practice has been been varied but he has has dealt with high-profile criminal cases during his career, including defending Michael Curtis, one of two brothers convicted of the murder of toddler Nia Glassie. He found such cases difficult to deal with. <"ref=DailyPost_P.B001"/>
He blames the unhealthy rise in abuse cases on the decline in children being seen by Plunket nurses. Temm wants to see legislation and health funding in place that will protect New Zealand children in the long term. He sees the drivers of child abuse in New Zealand as including "society's attitude to alcohol and the freedom of it and the increasing fractured nature of our families and a myriad of other things including drug abuse, mental health issues, financial strain and all of these things". "What happened then is that the fourth Labour government was elected and new right economic theory took sway. The Roger Douglas market theory was being applied and the statutory monopoly, that used to exist for Plunket and Karitane, was eroded and eventually done away with. So our preschool childcare was significantly dented. Temm has challenged the New Zealand Government to put the money where it is needed. "If you are serious about child abuse in New Zealand, you must pick up the challenge of the pre-school childcare through the health system and a number of other things could be leveraged off that. Every single child born in New Zealand should have his or her birth registered and the entire country should be divided into quadrants and every child, before the age of three, should be the responsibility of a Plunket or Karitane nurse and everything would leverage off that service. Let's just focus on the children and deal with the issue. That's my personal view". Temm is also concerned about the Sentencing Act 2002. He believes that that Act is not working because "at least 70 per cent of criminals behind bars suffering a mental disorder of some kind" With it costing between $50,000 and $100,000 annually to keep someone in jail, we have to ask ourselves, are we properly dealing with the people in our community?". <"ref=DailyPost_P.B001"/>
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