Gold Coast lawyers call on state government to fund Supreme Court
The State Government needs to start forward planning to help cope with Southport’s packed courthouse and growing population, according to the Gold Coast’s legal fraternity.
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THE State Government needs to start forward planning to help cope with Southport’s packed courthouse and growing population, according to the Gold Coast’s legal fraternity.
The city’s legal fraternity is calling for the Palaszczuk Government to put aside money to look at the city’s growing need for an expanded legal hub to include a Supreme Court, additional Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) and a fourth District Court judge.
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“The Queensland Law Society supports not only evidence-based law but evidence-based infrastructure,” Queensland Law Society president Bill Potts said.
Despite the calls, the State Government has claimed there is not enough work.
Mr Potts said the State Government needed to put together a plan to help the city’s legal infrastructure cop with the growing population.
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The city’s legal fraternity campaigned last year for a permanent Supreme Court on the Gold Coast to meet growing demand, reduce the need for lawyers, witnesses and defendants to be stuck in congestion on the M1 and allow Gold Coast juries to determine Gold Coast cases.
Supreme Court matters are currently heard in Brisbane with only one circuit sitting on the Coast this year.
QCAT matters are often sent up the M1 due to lack of facilities and there are no remaining spots left for District Court trials on the Gold Coast this year.
The Gold Coast is one of the state’s fastest-growing cities with the population expected to reach 1 million by 2045.
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Buckland Allen Criminal Lawyers partner Jodi Allen said the Southport court already had enough rooms and judges chambers to accommodate more regular Supreme Court sittings.
She said with the current sitting on an “ad hoc” basis it meant most lawyers were still having their Gold Coast matters heard in Brisbane to ensure they were dealt with in a timely manner.
Broadwater MP David Crisafulli said it was clear more legal services were needed.
“We are a large, cosmopolitan, progressive city that is being treated like a backwater,” he said.
Surfers Paradise MP John-Paul Langbroek said he was not confident the State Government would put any backing behind the infrastructure needed to expand the court precinct.
He said recent figures had shown Queensland had the second lowest infrastructure spend of any state.
“The numbers don’t lie,” Mr Langbroek said.
“In the past four and a half years that they have cut infrastructure spending because of debt.”
A spokeswoman for Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the courts and circuits were based upon demand.
“The Palaszczuk Government is committed to ensuring Queenslanders have access to justice, no matter where they live, and the court system has the resources it needs,” she said.
A spokeswoman for the District and Supreme Courts said the circuit court sittings were based on the amount of work being able to justify a sitting in a particular area.
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