How do you get justice for a small item that is rubbish when the only option is Disputes Tribunal?

Yes Terrence. Trademe has a step by step guide in their Help pages as below.

Making a Disputes Tribunal claim as a buyer – Help - Trade Me

I'm going through one at the moment, and was due a hearing last month but on the day of the hearing the court postponed it  and I am yet to get a new date for hearing. They said  Referee is not able to do Face to Face hearing and missing contact details of respondent. Trademe did advise when they released contact details of the seller to me ..."I've taken a look into the seller's account and unfortunately, it does appear to be one of a string of linked accounts that have been shut down by our fraud team, some with differing personal details on them, so I can't guarantee any of the details we hold are accurate."

A friend of mine was ripped off by a trader who sold the item then said that the item was at a "different address" and they provided a phone number. When she rang that person, he was an old man who knew nothing about the table that was purchased. The trader already had a lot of negative feedback (96% after many trades is not brilliant). This person is still allowed to trade to this day. Once someone has done that they should be removed.  Like someone said before the SC is not effective really. On top of the fact that a ruling cannot easily be enforced, no one has the time and so SC Tribunal is outmoded and outdated as a solution, its long overdue for an overhaul and its pretty pathetic that no one from TM could have called the trader and in fact the old man who had no idea what was going on to corroborate my friends story and then basically end the sellers membership. It cannot have been random with all the bad feedback after all.