Words matter, but we need to use the right ones. We do ourselves a disservice by disguising the seriousness of our difficulties — our problems — with euphemisms. The word ‘problem’ has been virtually replaced in our language by ‘issue’. ‘Problem’ suggests there is a — well — problem.
"Houston, we have a problem" is popularly quoted as a phrase spoken during Apollo 13, a NASA mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. After an explosion occurred on board the spacecraft en route to the Moon, Jack Swigert, the command module pilot, reported to Mission Control Centre in Houston, Texas: "Okay, Houston ... we've had a problem here." Would the Apollo 13 moon mission have been as promptly brought back to Earth after an explosion if he had instead radioed, “Houston, we have an issue”?
An unscientific look at reporting at home and abroad in various Ministries, Justice included, shows “issues” substantially outnumbering “problems” — when you might reasonably expect the opposite. The words are not synonymous. ‘Problems’ are by definition difficulties. ‘Issues’ are not necessarily; they’re just something that must be addressed. Problems demand answers, issues not so much. Issues often relax into a testiculation of committee members cascading across stakeholder interests finding broad approaches to other issues requiring further analysis in a circumlocution of consultation.
Here's the problem. Our busiest courthouses are not fit for the public, defendants, staff, or judges. Our Attorney General has a prime example on her doorstep: the Papakura District Court. A rotting, leaky, unfit for purpose disgrace to the idea of justice.
We are not alone.
Last year The Herald reported from an Official Information Act response from the Justice Ministry about its $5 billion worth of property, where it admits to spending a tiny fraction of what it should have to keep them up to scratch. "More than 50 per cent of our assets are failing," said a ministry property assessment in June 2023. Forty-three percent of its 100-plus buildings rated "poor or very poor” and getting worse. The June assessment warned of "13 courthouses in very poor condition". Count among them four district and High courts in Auckland, three in wider Wellington, and two in Rotorua.
And while our little Rome was sinking, well, it couldn’t burn as it was too wet! What happened to this problem? It evolved quickly into a series of issues resulting in not much more than issue talk fests and high-level visits, several of them. This rather than a focused answer to the real problem easily identified as a chronic underspend, with no additional new investment over many years that has led to our building and a portfolio of commercial property in critical condition.
So, no, don’t get me started on Papakura, the ugly, damp justice tent on a prominent corner of Great South Road. That’s a problem, Houston!!