Amanda Stoker (Queensland, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Carr. There are a few things in that question. The first thing to say is that, broadly speaking, your estimates of which judges have how much on their dockets—in the answer to your question on notice that was provided to you a little while ago—is right. I don't accept the premise of your question that says there is no intention to fill these vacancies. There is a process underway for the four retirement based vacancies to be filled, and they are in the process of being selected and appointed through the ordinary cabinet-in-confidence method.

The next matter to deal with is what is driving those retirements. There's no evidence to suggest that those who have retired have done so because they were unhappy with the workload that they had, and I'm the first person to recognise that the judges of the Federal Circuit Court are extremely hardworking. They will be assisted in that workload when they have more colleagues with which to share that load. That's why we are in the process of filling those vacancies.

It is worth noting, though, that the Federal Circuit Court at present operates a docket system, and that means, as you know, Senator Carr, each case is allocated to a particular judge who manages it from its commencement through to disposition. So, while one might have several hundred matters on their docket, it doesn't mean they all have to go to trial and all require a judgement. Many of those either settle or are dealt with in an ex tempore or immediate moral reasoning or judgement. It's only the case that a mere 15.5 per cent are ultimately judicially determined, in the sense that they get a final ruling. Of those, many are dealt with in the much faster ex tempore immediate moral reasoning method, rather than having to reserve a judgement and do the work that's associated with preparing a written judgement.

The point is that there is great variation in the amount of burden that each of those cases presents. Some are quite small; some are much larger. So, while there is variation in those numbers, they aren't always comparing apples and apples, if I might use that expression.