“We have plenty of court facilities, plenty of lawyers and barristers here to manage cases, we just need judges sitting in Parramatta to hear the cases,” said well-known Parramatta lawyer, Geoffrey Roberson, managing director of Champion Legal, chairman, of the Access to Justice for Western Sydney committee.
Why should Greater Western Sydney people be forced to travel long distances into the clogged Sydney CBD to get justice?
That was a question asked by the committee comprising members of Champion Legal, DeVries Tayeh, Parramatta Chamber of Commerce, Parramatta City Council, Parramatta & District Law Society, Sydney Business Chamber-Western Sydney and the University of Western Sydney.
Mr Robertson, the driving force behind the formation of the committee following a meeting in his company’s board room late last year, said the region has been overlooked for far too long.
“We have over 30 courts available but only a few judges; so many of these court rooms [13] remain empty; they are “significantly underutilised,” he said. “Taxpayers should be concerned about this underutilisation.”
The committee is seeking the appointment of at least six Supreme Court judges to be permanently based in Parramatta and the addition of another six Family Court justices to the Parramatta Family Court.
“We also want the Federal Court to hear cases across all its areas of responsibility here in Western Sydney, making Parramatta a permanent location for the full Federal Court,” Mr Roberson said prior to the launch of a campaign hosted by the NSW Business Chamber-Western Sydney.
Mr Robertson subsequently told 70 members of the Parramatta professional services, sector, local politicians and others that a successful campaign would benefit the community and help Parramatta to be acknowledged as a professional centre of excellence.
A document tabled at the launch noted that hundreds of residents and business people in the region were required to travel into the Sydney CBD, weekly, to have their matters dealt with in the Supreme Court.
“This imposes huge additional financial and time costs on these people and businesses, which is inefficient and uneconomic,” the document said.
Professor Michael Adams, dean of the Faculty of Law, at the University of Western Sydney – the faculty has existed for 15 years – said the university was happy to be involved in the campaign.
“With over two million people in the Western Sydney region, representing almost one-third of NSW’s population, there is an overwhelming case for a fully functioning justice system located in the main centre of the region to service this population’s needs,” said David Borger, Western Sydney director of the NSW Business Chamber.
Garrie Gibson, senior consultant, Advocacy & Issues Management, who has been retained by the committee and acted as MC for the launch, said additional financial support would be sought to fund the development of a detailed business case for presentation of the federal and state governments.
The case will be based on four key factors, one of which was the availability of law chambers and barristers in the region; there are two barrister chambers in Parramatta with over 40 barristers, supported by over 200 hundred law firms in Parramatta.
