Supreme Court Appointments

Mr PICTON (Kaurna) (14:19): My question is to the Attorney-General. Does the Attorney-General agree with the views expressed by the Chief Justice in a letter to the Budget and Finance Committee published in The Advertiser today?

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (14:19): I thank the member for the question because, again, the matters that were raised in the Budget and Finance Committee, of which there has been a publication of the letter in response to them I think a month ago, the Chief Justice had provided information to the committee on that. He outlined the number of auxiliary judges whom he had arranged or at least asked me as Attorney-General to seek the appointment of over the last few months.

They were provided to the committee in that correspondence. He expressed a concern that, although one of his judges had recently retired in June—a little earlier than expected but, nevertheless, she had retired—and that one was on its way, he felt that it was necessary to populate his court with permanent replacements and set out the reasons why that was important. As I have indicated publicly, it is also important that we consider the appointments in light of legislation which is currently before the parliament in respect of the proposed establishment of an appeal court division of the Supreme Court of South Australia, which would remain, of course, under the responsibility of the Chief Justice.

They are all matters that I have continued to discuss with him. Meanwhile, at his request, to ensure that he is not caught short, there are two things that have happened. One is a continuation of his funding for his judges—a judge at this stage but it will be judges—so that he has the financial support to enable him to continue to provide the services of the Supreme Court to South Australians. Secondly, there are 10 appointments—three retired Supreme Court judges, six District Court judges and two current masters, as they are known in the Supreme Court, as auxiliary judges, just in case he needs any of them. To date, I am advised he has only utilised the services—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: You are criticising the Chief Justice.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN: To date—no, this is not a contentious or difficult issue to understand. He has only utilised the services of one of them, but just in case he needs all the others, at his request and without exception, the government has supported the appointment of the auxiliary judges, a number of them with diverse skills, to ensure that the workings of the Supreme Court can continue, because it does important work and it is important that it continues to do that irrespective of whatever structures may be changed by this parliament.