Judicial Matters Bill — Second Reading

Thursday, February 11, 2010

I do not wish to speak a great deal on the Judicial Matters Bill, but I make it quite clear that the ACT Party will be supporting its passage through the House. One question that we would ask relates to the proposal contained in the bill to increase the number of Associate Judges of the High Court from six to nine. Of course, associate judges used to be Masters of the High Court. Masters or—now—associate judges are responsible for doing a lot of procedural issues. They look at cases coming up, schedule hearings, deal with timetabling, and issue orders in respect of cases before they come before a High Court judge. We have spoken a lot in the last 10 days about the importance of economic growth and giving the country the turbocharger that it needs. It seems to the ACT Party that rather than increasing the number of associate judges from six to nine we should perhaps be looking at 12 or 15, or an even bigger number. We should be doing everything we can to oil the wheels of justice to ensure there is speedy access to justice, and that parties that want to have their cases adjudicated can do so quickly and efficiently. The ACT Party certainly believes that that would add to the economic growth of the country. The ACT Party will be supporting this bill. Thank you.