Whatever prompted Justice Minister Kiri Allan to publicly refer to the tens of millions of dollars owed to victims of crime by way of court-ordered reparation last week, she wasn’t responding to a new phenomenon. People have been promising to pay reparation, then not paying it, for many years, and however aggrieved Allan might be at the injustice of that, she is unlikely to change it.
Those who have never sat in court might not be aware that a reparation order cannot be imposed without the offender’s agreement. Generally speaking they are happy to say they will pay to make amends for whatever it was they did; in many cases it is an all but assured means of avoiding a prison term.
