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The Judicial Conference of Australia is currently reviewing the process of selection of appointees to judicial office in all Australian jurisdictions. This review commenced prior to recent events in Queensland.

Whatever should be the appropriate process of selection, it is fundamental that it is for the executive government of the Commonwealth, a State or Territory to decide upon and make appointments of judicial officers within its jurisdiction. This is an important constitutional responsibility of the executive government. And once an appointment is made, it is the executive government which is answerable for it, both to Parliament and to the electorate.

The Judicial Conference does not form a collective view on the merit of any individual appointment, and that is not its role. Its concerns are for the observance of recognised conventions and protocols in the process of selection of appointees, as well as potential reforms of that process. These are matters which are critical to the ability and the perceived ability of courts to discharge their duties competently and impartially.

 

The Judicial Conference of Australia is the professional association of judges and magistrates in Australia.

For further information, contact the Judicial Conference of Australia Secretariat.