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Military Justice Reform Underway
27 March 2007
The Armed Forces Law Reform Bill had its first reading on 15 March. The Bill aims to bring the military justice system in line with the civilian criminal justice system, and create consistency across the three services.
“Our current system is governed by the Armed Forces Discipline Act 1971, which came into force on 1 December 1983. Attitudes and the environment have changed considerably since then. Community expectations and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 have highlighted and expanded rights, which need to be observed”, Defence Minister Phil Goff said in his speech to Parliament.
“One of the principles which underpins many of the reforms in this Bill is that the processes of the ordinary criminal law should be the benchmark for military law, unless there are sound reasons arising from the nature of the Armed Forces which dictate otherwise.
“One example is the authorisation of an equivalent to the Police Detention Legal Assistance scheme for the benefit of service members who are being questioned by the service authorities in connection with a suspected offence.”
Changes are also required to bring to make the military justice system “joint”. “Some parts of the military justice system are not common to all three services. This hinders the proper exercise of joint command and is an unnecessary complication.”
This page was last reviewed on 02 April 2007 and is current.
