Regions deserve better: Law Council president Pauline Wright

New Law Council of Australia president Pauline Wright is on a crusade to improve access to justice in the regions.

Pauline Wright, President of the Law Council of Australia. Picture: Sean Davey

Courthouses in country towns should be fixed up, not shut down, and federal resources injected to enable more family and other federal law hearings in regional and remote locations.

New Law Council of Australia president Pauline Wright is on a crusade to improve access to justice in the regions and better support lawyers outside the big cities.

It’s an issue close to her heart.

Ms Wright moved from Sydney to the NSW central coast on a whim 20 years ago and began work as an environmental and planning lawyer in Gosford. She has never looked back.

Now, she is keen to promote the benefits to young lawyers of practising in small towns, including connecting with local communities.

Many country courts needed upgrades to modernise their facilities and improve security, she said. “Proper resourcing for regional and remote courthouses is vital,” she said.

“When the courts close in country towns, the lawyers move out, then the banks close and the towns really suffer. We have to ­really fight to make sure people have access to justice no matter where they live … you shouldn’t have to travel 300km to court.”

She would like the “buy from the bush” campaign, which has helped businesses hit hard by the drought, to be extended to lawyers in small towns. Larger regional businesses should look to local lawyers where possible rather than city firms, she said. An injection of funding to the Federal Circuit Court for more regional circuits would also help to reduce long delays in federal matters, including family law, she said.

The Law Council will conduct research into how access to justice in the bush can be improved.

As president, Ms Wright will also be pushing the Law Council’s longstanding agenda items, including improving legal assistance funding and supporting an indigenous voice to parliament. She points out that only 8 per cent of Australians now qualify for legal aid, despite 14 per cent living below the poverty line.

Ms Wright, who replaces Arthur Moses SC, said the Law Council was still firmly opposed to the merger of the Family Court and Federal Circuit Court. It is understood the council is also still in favour of a separate chief for each of those courts (Family Court Chief Justice Will Alstergren is also head of the lower-level Federal Circuit Court). She said she would not “shy away” from prosecuting the profession’s concerns in the media — but she is expected to be less combative than her predecessor. She is the Law Council’s fifth female president and for the first time will be succeeded by another female — president-elect Jacoba Brasch SC.

The Law Council will consult on mechanisms to protect junior lawyers, including the possibility of extending the legal services award to lawyers in their first five years of practice.

Lengthy hours worked by lawyers when matters were urgent were part of “the nature of things”, she said.

“We have to be there to help when help is needed but there are ways to manage that better and to ensure there are also down times built in when things are not as urgent,” she said.