Kiwis waiting years for justice won’t be reassured by a Minister who freely admits the system is ‘ridiculous’ five years into her Government’s time in office, National’s Justice spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says.

Justice Minister Kiri Allan told Q&A this morning that improvements to the incredibly slow justice system are years away. “You’ve got a system right now where Corrections can’t talk to Police, which can’t talk to Justice, which can’t talk to OT,” Ms Allen said.

Mr Goldsmith says Labour needed to take responsibility for the problems.

“Hasn’t her party been in power for five years?

“Labour has prioritised everything else and done very little on the all-important issue of access to justice. Now we’re told the Government is finally on to it, but it will take years.

“The previous Labour Justice Minister, Kris Faafoi, told Parliament that his priorities had been repealing Three Strikes Legislation and banning Gay Conversion Therapy.

“Now, the current Justice Minister has confirmed that she will be pushing through hate speech laws, as well as her partisan electoral funding law changes.

“The Government’s focus should be on the critical elements of the justice sector.  Improving access to timely justice is as critical as it gets, along with dealing more effectively with violent crime and out of control youth crime. 

“As with so many other areas, in justice Labour has talked a lot, spent a lot more money, but in critical areas like speeding up our slow courts it has achieved so little.”