Paul Goldsmith: Justice Minister on the report revealing the justice system is under considerable stress

Fixing major challenges in the justice system might need to be a team effort from key players across the board. 

Concern around mounting stress in the system is highlighted by Chief Justice Dame Helen Winkelmann in her Annual Report. 

It identifies key stressors including delays, limited capacity, security challenges, and insufficient funding.  

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith told Mike Hosking speeding up the courts is a classic system challenge.  

He says there's a whole lot of different players, like Police and Judges, and everyone tends to blame each other for the situation. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the Chief Justice in an annual report tells the
su stress and lack of facility, shortage and resources lawyers
and access to justice. Serious offending that's murder and manslaughter
now makes up seventy six percent of all new trials
in the High Court. Paul Goldsmith, Justice, Minister of Courses,
with us, good morning, good morning, we've got alarm bells
or this is what we know?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well, yes, this is what we know. There has been
a lot of pressure in the justice system and so
we're doing everything we can to focus on speeding up
the processes of the courts and recognizing the obviously the
very difficult and demanding role that our judges play on
behalf of the rest of society. You know, quite often
the dealing with people on the worst day of their lives,

(00:41):
with one of the most stressful days of their lives.
So it is a difficult environment. But we're doing everything
we can to help on that front. On that front,
what are you doing, well, we're increasing the number of
High Court judges. We've got a bill in the House
lifting it by two and we're actually going to amend
that to have the possibility to go up by another three.

(01:02):
On top of that we're investing in a whole lor
of new courthouses around the country. We've got a real
focus on digitizing the system. You know, we've inherited a
situation which has been going back over many decades now
where it's still a very paper based system and we've
got to get it modernized.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
From personal experience, I just when I was last in court,
I couldn't believe how nineteen seventy three it looked. Is
that being fixed and fixed rapidly?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yes, the fundamental thing is around digitizing the whole process
and not having people wandering around. We're big folders, and
so that we're underway. We should be in the family
court starting that next year, well, actually implementing it next year.
So they've been working for a couple of years. They
have tried in the past and failed, so we're making
sure we get it right this time. Around the length

(01:49):
of trials, they talk of how much is that about
the law and maybe the law needs amending, or how
much of it's about soft judges that go, yes, you
can have an adjument, Yes you can have a delay
and maybe then get stretched out. Well, the Chief Justice
referred to the fact that there's quite a lot of
trials now with multiple players. I saw one in the

(02:09):
Bay plenty recently with you know, more than ten people
were charged, and so that is more complicated. But you know,
look that there's always been complications in the system. I mean,
we're obviously focusing on reducing crime overall, and that will
flow through, but in the meantime, there's a lot of
work to do.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Was that a very delicate way of not criticizing I
just wonder how much butt coverings going on here, and
the judges toughened up a little bit, things might happen
a little bit quicker.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Well, well, yes, I can see you're sort of trying
to go me into criticizing the judges, and I'm not
going to do that because it's you know, it is
actually an important sort of institutional norm that we have
a separation of powers't I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
But when the Chief Justice goes this is broken, and
one of the fairly obvious parts that is broken might
be because of their behavior. You've got to push back
of it, don't you.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, Well, what I would say is that all of
the all of the different parts of the justice system
have to contribute to improving and so speeding up the
courts is a classic systems challenge where you've got corrections,
you've got police, you've got the judges, you've got the judiciary, sorry,
you've got the justice system. You've got a whole lot
of other different players and everybody tends to blame each

(03:20):
other sometimes for the situation. And so that's why we
get everybody into the same room on a regular basis
and say, well, look, what are the twenty things we
can do that will help. And once we've done those,
what are the next twenty things we can do will help?
Partly legislation, partly you know, technology and making sure the
Wi Fi works, the basic sort of stuff, and partly
the rules of the courts are an issue. And we

(03:41):
work our way through all of those things and a
collective and collaborative fashion got.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yourself out of that one nicely. Paul Goldsmith, Justice Minister.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
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Speaker 1 (03:52):
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