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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-09-05 Daily Xml
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Justices of the Peace

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (12:54): I move:

That this house—

(a) recognises the valuable volunteer service that over 7,000 justices of the peace in the state of South Australia provide;

(b) calls on the Attorney-General to formally recognise those justices of the peace who have undertaken the role for 15 years by the presentation of an award; and

(c) calls on the Attorney-General to formally recognise those justices of the peace who have undertaken the role for 25 years by the presentation of an award.

A justice of the peace fulfils a very important job within the community, and there are many JPs who go about their duties with little fanfare or reward. A JP is a person who has been appointed by the Attorney-General to act as an independent and objective witness to documents. There are over 7,000 JPs in South Australia. In the electorate of Mount Gambier, we are fortunate enough to have 150 JPs who assist members of the public, witnessing signatures or certifying documents on their behalf. Many members of parliament have a JP service in their office, providing a valuable service to our constituents. My office regularly has over 200 people a month attend, seeking the services of two staff members in my office who have chosen to become JPs.

While it may seem that a JP simply witnesses a person's signature, there is a bit more responsibility to the role than that. It is also the responsibility of a JP to ensure, to the best of their ability, that they believe that the document the person is signing is in the correct format and also that the person understands what they are signing and that no undue pressure has been put on a person to sign a document. As well as witnessing signatures, a JP certifies documents, undertakes identification checks and, at times, is required to be an independent witness at a police interview or when drugs are destroyed.

JPs can also elect to be a member of the Royal Association of Justices of South Australia, and approximately 40 per cent of South Australian JPs are association members. They do this in order to pursue specialised training, which is offered by the association, and also demonstrate a commitment to professional competency.

Due to the fact that time is very short, I will put the rest of my speech on my website. I do want to mention Jimmy Galpin, who is over the age of 80, an active JP and a fantastic community member. Thank you, Jimmy. I also want to talk about retired Mount Gambier justice of the peace Garry Von Stanke, whose initiation of this award is why we are here today. With that, I commend the motion to the house.

The Hon. V.A. CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General) (12:57): I rise to indicate that I propose to move an amendment to the motion. I move:

Delete paragraphs (b) and (c) and insert:

(b) note the Attorney-General provides a certificate upon resignation after 20 or more years of service and upon reaching 50 years of service.

In doing so, I firstly thank the member for introducing this motion to recognise the important work of our justices of the peace. Presently, unlike a number of other states, we give quite a lot of recognition to those who are serving, during the course of their service. Firstly, upon the resignation of any JP at any time after a day's service or 80 years of service, they get a letter from the registrar of justices of the peace services thanking them for their contribution. Additionally, the Attorney-General provides a certificate upon resignation, where there has been 20 or more years of service. It is a very different process of receiving a certificate, irrespective of whether they are continuing service at 50 years of service, so there is quite a lot of recognition.

Secondly, I should inform the house that the Royal Association of Justices of SA recognises JPs who have been members of the association, and they obviously give that recognition. We also, by statute, allow retiring JPs, who have provided more than 20 years of service, the right to maintain their post-nominal title 'JP (Retired)', which you might sometimes see on a person's card or website. I also remind members that the Premier's Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Volunteer Service often attracts retired or long serving justices of the peace for the work they do.

I would ask that the motion be amended to recognise those two areas of service. I am advised that the extra round of certificates or recognition that is being sought would be fairly costly. I am advised that, if this was done automatically at 25 years, around 3,000 certificates would be prepared and mailed out and cost some $12,000. That is not in any way to be measured against the invaluable work they do, but I just make the point that we are doing it at essentially 20 and 50 years, and we would like that to be acknowledged.

Thank you very much to the member for bringing it to the attention of the house. I would urge all members, with the amendment, to support the motion.

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (13:00): I rise to indicate opposition support for the motion moved by the member for Mount Gambier.

Mr BELL (Mount Gambier) (13:00): I thank all speakers who spoke on this very important motion.

Amendment carried; motion as amended carried.

Sitting suspended from 13:01 to 14:00.

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