Page 4119 - Week 14 - Thursday, 25 October 1990
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COURT STRUCTURES IN THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY - REVIEW
Ministerial Statement and Paper
Debate resumed from 20 September 1990, on motion by Mr Collaery:
That the Assembly takes note of the papers.
MR STEFANIAK (12.02): Mr Speaker, I think it is probably very timely, with the advent of self-government, for my colleague the Attorney-General to commission a review of the court structure and have a discussion paper prepared about this most important subject. There is a number of problems with the ACT courts, which this paper addresses. I stress that it is a discussion paper, as the Attorney himself said when he introduced it.
Views have been sought from all relevant bodies, such as the Law Society of the ACT and the Bar Association, and I certainly look forward to seeing the input they have in relation to this question. I think one of the biggest problems we have in the ACT - as much as anything else - is the physical layout of the current courts. There is, of course, the main court building at Knowles Place in Civic, with its two main Supreme Court rooms there, with jury facilities. Court No. 6 is a smaller court, which is largely used as a third Supreme Court. It does not have any jury facilities, and it is also used at times as part of the Magistrates Court. Courts Nos 5, 4 and 3 are the main Magistrates Courts there, and, of course, there is the main court administration for the Magistrates Court and the Supreme Court. As well as that, of course, we have Childers Street. There are two Magistrates Courts there, and that is where the Children's Court is based. It is also where the Chief Magistrate has his chambers.
Also in Childers Street we have the Family Court, which is, of course, the responsibility of the Federal Government, and the Federal Court sits there as well. There are several court buildings there which have a purely Federal function, or are administered under Federal Acts. Also we have Murray House where there is one small court, and some court staff operate out of there as well. At times the AMP building is used by the ACT courts.
This is probably not the most efficient or cost-effective use of space for the courts. I think it is probably long overdue - and I am pleased that this review recommends it - for the courts to be centralised in one building, and the staffing arrangements between the courts rationalised. If that in fact does eventuate in the next few years, the ACT Government, and through it the ACT taxpayers, will save a lot of money which they are paying now and would otherwise continue to pay because of the actual physical layout of the ACT courts. So I am pleased to see that question addressed.
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