In the blue corner

The title of our new courts, Te Ao Marama, translates to ‘‘The World of Light,’’ a phrase that details the raft of changes occurring in our justice system.

The changes are a step forward for New Zealand’s justice system, and our nation’s judges should be praised for their leadership on the matter.

Victims seem to have been left behind in our previous system and it is a step forward to move to a victim-centred approach.

Too often it is forgotten that victims are not in the courts or being put through the justice process by choice, they have been a victim of a crime, and for that reason alone they are caught up in the system.

These changes come as a reminder to the New Zealand public that victims are not to blame, and they should never be made a casualty of the system. Te Ao Marama encourages the system to now tilt towards the victim ensuring that they have their rights defended.

When National was last in government, we introduced various specialist courts, such as the Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court along with Rangatahi, the

Youth Court. They are designed to tackle the root cause of offending, and not use the draconian way of simply incarcerating offenders for them only to repeat the crimes after their sentence is complete. We have seen positive results come out of these specialist courts, and it is encouraging to see them being used more frequently.

The New Zealand court system is robust, and perhaps a cost of that robustness is the complexity. Access to justice in New

Zealand would become more user-friendly if everyone participating understood the process and procedures in place.

Victims seek justice in different ways. For some it could be that they wish their offender was incarcerated, for others they may wish their offender to serve justice away from prison. This process and handling of this new type of justice needs to be well understood in order to be executed with its desired effect.

We must also remind ourselves what the courts are designed to do.

They are part of our society because they provide fairness and accountability, but like all things in life, we need a balance.

Rehabilitation of offenders is critical. So too is the victim having a say, but the bottom line and the non-negotiable is that the community remains safe.

That must never change, and this consideration is still required to be at the forefront of the new system.

We will never achieve perfection, but these changes are positive, and will go a long way to making our system fairer and more focused on what is important.