In the red corner

Calls for transformative change to the justice system are not new and have relevance for all cultures in modern Aotearoa. But Ma¯ ori feel this sense of unfairness deeply. We are disproportionately represented in criminal justice statistics, at least in part because of bias within the system and a range of adverse early-life social and environmental factors.

That’s why I welcomed news last year of a new transformative model for district courts, bringing best practices from solution-focused specialist courts into the mainstream.

Te Ao Ma¯ rama will be established in the Hamilton District Court this year and incorporate Waikato’s new Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment (AODT) Court, as well as a new rehabilitative pathway for cases where a mother’s dependency risks the removal of a child.

This new model will have a strong focus on procedural fairness to help ensure all those in court are engaged, understand the process, and leave feeling heard and understood.

It’ll be developed in partnership with

local people to address underlying causes of offending, such as mental health and addiction issues, and homelessness.

These changes are consistent with the Government’s plan to overhaul our criminal justice system. We know 30 years of locking more people up longer has not changed reoffending rates, nor made communities safer.

We need to change the course of criminal justice here to ensure less offending, less reoffending, and fewer victims of crime.

That’s why we established the crosssector initiative, Ha¯ paitia te Oranga

Tangata – Safe and Effective Justice, to help guide the transformation of our criminal justice system.

It’s about developing long-term solutions to keep communities safe, address pathways to offending, and ensure better outcomes for everyone involved.

Already we’ve committed to ensuring justice is administered in an environment that’s safe and effective for all participants.

We’ve also committed to comprehensive system change over time that treats victims with respect and offenders more effectively, and makes the system more responsive to community expectations of accountability.

We backed this up by making the pilot AODT courts in Auckland and Waita¯ kere permanent, and funding a new one in Hamilton.

There’s much more we can do to make our courts fairer, and transforming our criminal justice system will take time.

But I think the Government’s record, and initiatives, show we’re on the right track.