Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today I want to talk about a very serious matter that's putting the safety of my community at risk, and I want to again call on the Prime Minister to do something about it. Six months ago the Attorney-General, Senator George Brandis, appointed one of Newcastle's Federal Circuit Court judges to the Australian Law Reform Commission, leaving Newcastle registry short, with only two judges. At the time, the legal community and I were assured that the replacement was imminent. But, six months later, the people of Newcastle are still waiting, despite repeated assurances from the Attorney-General that a replacement is under active consideration.

This is not just an annoyance; it's gross incompetence from the man charged with being the highest legal officer in the land. It's lard to overstate the impact this is having on families dealing with multiple and complex issues, including marital breakdown, child custody disputes, domestic violence and drug and alcohol abuse. These people are now being forced to wait for years in limbo for their cases to be resolved. After multiple letters to the Attorney-General had no effect, I wrote to the Prime Minister, more than a month ago now, calling on him to compel his Attorney-General to do his job. To date I am still waiting for a reply. The fact that neither the Attorney-General nor the Prime Minister seems able to recognise the danger they are putting our community in is deeply concerning.

The Attorney-General has received multiple warnings from senior members of Newcastle's legal community that this vacancy is putting lives at risk. Last month data was prepared for me by Chief Judge Pascoe, head of the Federal Circuit Court, which revealed that Newcastle's Federal Circuit Court judges are straining under workloads twice the size of the national average as a direct result of this government's failure to fill this critical judicial vacancy. In fact, Newcastle judges are projected to each have an average of 770 matters on their books in 2016-17, compared with the national average of 376. This is indefensible. Even former Federal Circuit Court judge Giles Coakes has been forced to take to take the extraordinary step of speaking out, accusing the Attorney-General of being 'Reckless and negligent in taking so long to fill this position'.

This can't go on. We have been waiting too long for the Attorney-General to fulfil the basic bread-and-butter duties of his job. The Prime Minister needs to step in and to direct the Attorney-General to appoint a replacement judge to Newcastle's Federal Circuit Court as a matter of absolute urgency.