Labour MP Rick Barker has drafted a bill to put the interests of victims first by placing the onus on offenders to pay reparation "in full and up front".
Mr Barker, Labour's courts spokesman, said today his member's bill would reverse the current situation.
"The victim of the crime is often victimised twice by being forced to become a default creditor for the perpetrator of the crime," he said.
"What happens is that offenders usually enter into an arrangement with the courts to pay off reparation of a period that suits themselves."
Mr Barker said this meant they didn't have to raise credit to fund the reparation, or dip into their own resources.
"In the meantime the victim, who has already been burgled for example, has to buy replacements out of their own resources," he said.
"The problem is often compounded whenever the offender subsequently defaults on payments or heads overseas."
Mr Barker said he recognised there would be cases where offenders had no resources or could not raise credit.
"But that's not the point -- the point is to ensure that courts recognised that the victims of crime deserve to be treated with the greatest amount of consideration possible," he said.
"Why should they have to pay out of their own resources while perpetrators are barely put out of pocket at all?"
Mr Barker's bill will go into the ballot for members bills. There is a draw every second Wednesday that Parliament is sitting, and one or two new bills go on the agenda for a first reading.
