Andrew Dickens Afternoons

COMMENT:The Safe and Effective Justice Advisory Group has finished its tour of New Zealand and reported back to the Government.The working group is chaired by former National MP Chester Borrows. He’s an interesting chap, Chester. Firstly Chester in not his name, it’s a nickname. It took him three goes to get the Whanganui seat. He’s a lay preacher who gave Israel Folau a serve in 2018. He proposed a softening of the smacking law and after a visit to Parihaka had a road to Damascus experience regarding the teaching of Māori history in our schools, which will become obvious soon.So the Advisory Group has had a good hard look at our justice system and come up with the hardly surprising conclusion that the system is broken, and that we need to transform it into something better and fairer.Chester Borrows told us the report is particularly critical of how victims are treated within the system, saying people have a lack of faith in it, and that suggests it is not fit for purpose.Victims are interrogated and presume