17 May 2019
This year Law Week was launched by the Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay MLA with some self-effacing humour and a very worthwhile reminder that we all work to protect the right to equal access to the legal system, and one of the “vital rights … we must uphold is the right to a coherent, cohesive community”. In the seriously frivolous Golden Gavel speaking competition that followed, McLaren Wall received the Gavel, and Erin Hagerty received the People’s Choice award. In my view, all contestants deserved a first prize!
The Blackburn Lecture was delivered by Karen Fryar AM, who retired recently after 26 years as a magistrate, where she excelled in her work dealing with family violence. Karen’s discourse focussed on the pro bono delivery of legal services. She made a strong exhortation (a word with many shades of meaning) for each of us to individually take a serious look at how much pro bono service we provide, and to increase our commitment. Karen’s experience has her in the unique position of knowing the intense difficulty unrepresented litigants face — particularly in the family violence area — and the positive effect a generous lawyer can have to alleviate the person’s trauma. We will print her speech in full in the next edition of Ethos.
On achieving independence from Australia in 1975, PNG was given a robust Constitution and legal system. The independence of the judiciary and its power to make orders to enforce the Constitution are significant features. In 2015, after his retirement as Chief Justice of the ACT Supreme Court, the Honourable Terence Higgins AO QC, became a judge of the National and Supreme Courts of PNG. In his Law Week discourse “Justice in PNG”, Terry gave a very valuable insight into the workings of the PNG system and the constitutional basis for the Courts’ ability to rectify wrongs which would otherwise strike at the heart of a free and fair society. In the Manus Island case, the Court (constituted by five judges) applied the constitutional right to a person’s freedom to close (or open the gates of) the detention centre. The Government had argued that it was not detention, but protection for the good of the inmates. The complexity of the PNG social structure, with over 800 languages, its “One Tok” allegiances, and tendencies for over-use of perceived executive powers, were all addressed by Terry. We expect to publish his full discourse in the near future.
Meanwhile, back at the ACT Legislative Assembly, private rights were being stripped away from all of us by the Labor and Greens coalition, as they defeated the more than 100 amendments proposed by the Liberal Party to ameliorate the CTP legislation. We supported these amendments, as they would have mitigated the unfair and disastrous consequences to innocent injured people.
It left me wondering about the Government’s commitment to “access to justice”.
Chris Donohue President, ACT Law Society