The following section reports on the Court’s work during the year to improve the operation and accessibility of the Court, including reforms to its practice and procedure. This section also reports on the Court’s work during the year to contribute more broadly to enhancing the quality and accessibility of the Australian justice system, including the participation of judges in bodies such as the Australian Law Reform Commission and the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration, and in other law reform, community and educational activities.

An outline of the judges’ work in this area is included in Appendix 8 (Judges’ activities).

Practice and procedure reforms

The National Practice Committee is responsible for developing and refining policy and significant principles regarding the Court’s practice and procedure. It is comprised of the Chief Justice, NPA coordinating judges and the national appeals coordinating judges, and is supported by a number of registrars of the Court.

During the reporting year, the committee met and dealt with a range of matters including:

• considering feedback received in respect of its national practice notes
• preparing amendments to nine national practice notes
• consulting on and drafting a new Defamation Practice Note as part of the Defamation sub-area of the Other Federal Jurisdiction NPA
• developing the framework for a new appeals practice note, and
• managing responsibilities and support for each NPA, including enhancing and developing national arrangements for liaison with the profession (including through court user-groups and forums in key practice areas), and developing a framework for skilled and experienced Judicial Registrar support for each NPA (including in class actions, migration and intellectual property).

In addition, the National Practice Committee worked closely with the Digital Practice Committee to continue to ensure the development of leading policy and practice in the area of digital and technological practice within the Court.

Liaison with the Law Council of Australia

Members of the National Practice Committee meet with the Law Council’s Federal Court Liaison Committee to discuss matters concerning the Court’s practice and procedure, as required. The available members of the two committees met on 3 December 2018 to discuss a range of matters, including information regarding the workload of the Court and the disposition of proceedings, case management procedure, digital hearings, and policy and practice (including practice notes).

Representatives of the Court and representatives of the Law Council’s Federal Court Liaison Committee also discussed updates to the Case Management Handbook.

Assistance for self-represented litigants

The Court delivers a wide range of services to self-represented litigants (SRLs). These services have been developed to meet the needs of SRLs for information and assistance concerning the Court’s practice and procedure.

During the reporting year, the Attorney-General’s Department continued to provide funding to LawRight, Justice Connect, JusticeNet SA and Legal Aid Western Australia to provide basic legal information and advice to SRLs in the Federal Court and the Federal Circuit Court.

These services involved dissuading parties from commencing or continuing unmeritorious proceedings, providing assistance to draft or amend pleadings or prepare affidavits, giving advice on how to prepare for a hearing and advising on how to enforce a court order. While the services are independent of the courts, facilities are provided within court buildings to enable meetings to be held with clients.

Tables 3.6, 3.7 and 3.8 provide broad statistics about the number of SRLs appearing in the Court as applicants in a matter (respondents are not recorded). As the recording of SRLs is not a mandatory field in the Court’s case management system, and the representation status of a party during the course of a proceeding may vary from time to time, statistics shown in the tables are indicative only. In the reporting year, 751 people who commenced proceedings in the Court were identified as self-represented. The majority were appellants in migration appeals.

Direct financial counselling project in bankruptcy proceedings

With the assistance of Consumer Action in Melbourne and Uniting Communities in Adelaide, the Court has, in conjunction with the Federal Circuit Court, been able to facilitate a program of targeted financial counselling assistance to SRLs in bankruptcy proceedings. Since the latter part of 2014 in Melbourne and 2018 in Adelaide, a financial counsellor sits in the courtroom in every bankruptcy list. The registrar presiding is able to refer an SRL to the financial counsellor for an immediate confidential discussion so that the SRL better understands his or her options when faced with the prospect and consequences of bankruptcy.

In Melbourne, during the reporting year, there were 67 referrals of debtors in proceedings to financial counsellors, 58 of which have been determined. In 43 of those proceedings (74 per cent), they were resolved by consent. While statistics are not yet available from Adelaide, registrars have reported favourably about the program.

Interpreters

The Court is aware of the difficulties faced by litigants who have little or no understanding of the English language. The Court will not allow a party or the administration of justice to be disadvantaged by a person’s inability to secure the services of an interpreter. It has therefore put in place a system to provide professional interpreter services to people who need those services but cannot afford to pay for them.

In general, the Court’s policy is to provide these services for litigants who are self-represented and who do not have the financial means to purchase the services, and for litigants who are represented but are entitled to an exemption from payment of court fees, under the Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court fees regulation (see below).

Court fees and exemption

Fees are charged under the Federal Court and Federal Circuit Court Regulation 2012 for filing documents; setting a matter down for hearing; hearings and mediations; taxation of bills of costs; and for some other services in proceedings in the Court.

During the reporting year, the rate of the fee that was payable depended on whether the party liable to pay was a publicly listed company (for bankruptcy filing and examination fees only); a corporation; a public authority (for bankruptcy filing and examination fees only); a person; a small business; or a not-for-profit association.

Some specific proceedings are exempt from all or some fees. These include:

• human rights applications (other than an initial filing fee of $55)
• some fair work applications (other than an initial filing fee of $73.20)
• appeals from a single judge to a Full Court in human rights and some fair work applications
• an application by a person to set aside a subpoena
• an application under s 23 of the International Arbitration Act 1974 for the issue of a subpoena requiring the attendance before or production of documents to an arbitrator (or both)
• an application for an extension of time
• a proceeding in relation to a case stated or a question reserved for the consideration or opinion of the Court
• a proceeding in relation to a criminal matter, and
• setting-down fees for an interlocutory application.

A person is entitled to apply for a general exemption from paying court fees in a proceeding if that person:

• has been granted Legal Aid
• has been granted assistance by a registered body to bring proceedings in the Federal Court under Part 11 of the Native Title Act 1993 or has been granted funding to perform some functions of a representative body under s 203FE of that Act
• is the holder of a health care card, a pensioner concession card, a Commonwealth seniors health card or another card certifying entitlement to Commonwealth health concessions
• is serving a sentence of imprisonment or is otherwise detained in a public institution
• is younger than 18 years, or
• is receiving youth allowance, Austudy or ABSTUDY benefits.

Such a person can also receive, without paying a fee, the first copy of any document in the court file or a copy required for the preparation of appeal papers.

A corporation that had been granted Legal Aid or funding under the Native Title Act 1993 has the same entitlements.

A person (but not a corporation) is exempt from paying a court fee that otherwise is payable if a Registrar or an authorised officer is satisfied that payment of that fee at that time would cause the person financial hardship. In deciding this, the Registrar or authorised officer must consider the person’s income, day-to-day living expenses, liabilities and assets. Even if an earlier fee has been exempted, eligibility for this exemption must be considered afresh on each occasion a fee is payable in any proceeding.

More comprehensive information about filing and other fees that are payable, how these are calculated (including definitions used, e.g. ‘not-for-profit association’, ‘public authority’, ‘publicly listed company’ and ‘small business’) and the operation of the exemption from paying the fee is available on the Court’s website. Details of the fee exemptions during the reporting year are set out in Appendix 1 (Financial statements).

Freedom of information

Information Publication Scheme

As required by subsection 8(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), the Federal Court has published, on its website at www.fedcourt.gov.au/ips, materials relating to the Information Publication Scheme. This includes the Court’s current Information Publication Scheme plan as well as information about the Court’s organisational structure, functions, appointments, annual reports, consultation arrangements and FOI contact officer as well as information routinely provided to the Australian Parliament.

The availability of some documents under the FOI Act will be affected by s 5 of that Act, which states that the Act does not apply to any request for access to a document of the Court unless the document relates to matters of an administrative nature. Documents filed in court proceedings are not of an administrative nature; they may, however, be accessible by way of an application for inspection of court documents under the Federal Court Rules.

Access to judgments

When a decision of the Court is delivered, a copy is made available to the parties and published on the Federal Court website and a number of free legal information websites for access by the media and the public. Judgments of public interest are published by the Court within an hour of delivery and other judgments within a few days. The Court also provides copies of judgments to legal publishers and other subscribers. Online free access legal information websites providing access to Federal Court judgments include AustLII and JADE.

Information for the media and televised judgments

The Director, Public Information deals with media inquiries, most of which relate to specific cases, however, duties also include issues management, which often requires high-level contact and coordination.

Media regularly contact the Director, Public Information for access to judgments and information on how to access files. This requires close liaison with, and the support of, registries and judges’ chambers.

The Director, Public Information is responsible for briefing new associates about how the Court deals with the media, arranges camera access in cases of public interest, and contacts journalists when mistakes have been made.

In matters of extensive public interest, the Court has established online files where all documents deemed accessible are placed. This removes the need for individual applications to registry and makes it easier for journalists and court staff.

In the reporting year, such files were created for the following:

• Ben Roberts-Smith matters
• Jack de Belin v Australian Rugby League Commission Limited
• Friends of Leadbeater’s Possum Inc v VicForests
• Sanda v PTTEP Australasia (Ashmore Cartier), and
• Rush v Nationwide News.

A significant highlight of the year was the special arrangements made for media covering the Rush v Nationwide News hearing. These included the provision of a special media room, regular upload of documents to an online file and the live televising of the judgment. The support of chambers and the web team were critical to the success of this operation.

Community relations

The Court engages in a wide range of activities with the legal profession, including regular user group meetings. The aim of user groups is to provide a forum for court representatives and the legal profession to discuss existing and emerging issues, provide feedback to the Court and act as a reference group.

Seminars and workshops on issues of practice and procedure in particular areas of the Court’s jurisdiction are also regularly held. In 2018–19, members of the Court were involved in seminars relating to arbitration, employment and industrial relations, commercial law, tax, and class actions.

Working with the Bar

Registries across the country hosted advocacy sessions and a number of bar moot courts and moot competitions and assisted with readers’ courses during the year. The New South Wales registry hosted a silks ceremony on 17 October 2018. The Queensland registry hosted a silks ceremony in December 2018.

User groups

User groups have been formed along NPA lines to discuss issues related to the operation of the Court, its practice and procedure, to act as a reference group for discussion of developments and proposals, and as a channel to provide feedback to the Court on particular areas of shared interest. During the reporting year, user groups met both nationally and locally in a number of practice areas.

Legal community

During the year the Court’s facilities were made available for many events for the legal community including:

• Brisbane – the Professor Michael Whincop Memorial Lecture, the Australian Law Reform Commission class action seminar, the Australian Bar Association seminar on taxes and debt recovery, international commercial arbitration, a new silks ceremony in December 2018, the Griffith Law School Alumni event, and the Richard Cooper Memorial Lecture.
• Melbourne – the annual international arbitration lecture, the Australian Academy of Law symposium, and the Maritime Law Association of Australia and New Zealand seminar.
• Perth – the registry hosted the AMTAC address, the 2018 arbitration seminar, an employment and industrial relations seminar, a national commercial law seminar, pro bono lawyers function and the CIArb Series arbitration clauses. The Royal Commission into Aged Care was also hosted by the Court in June 2019.
• Sydney – the Tristan Jepson Memorial Foundation Lecture, the NSW Hellenic Australian Lawyers Association Oration, the Whitmore Lecture, the Tony Blackshield Lecture, the Australian Association of Constitutional Law lecture, the AMTAC address, and the Mahla Pearlman Oration.
• Hobart – the UNCITRAL Coordinating Committee UN Day.

Education

The Court engages in a range of strategies to enhance public understanding of its work, and the Court’s registries are involved in educational activities with schools and universities and, on occasion, with other organisations that have an interest in the Court’s work. The following highlights some of these activities during the year.

The Court hosted many work experience students across multiple registries. Students are given a program that exposes them to all areas of the Court’s operations over the course of one week.

The Court hosted a number of school visits and educational tours across its registries. In South Australia, the registry hosted a visit by Year 11 legal studies students from the Glenunga International High School. In Queensland, the registry hosted a visit by year 12 students from the Southern Cross School. In Melbourne the registry hosted a visit by year 7 students from Camberwell Boys Grammar.

The Court’s support for and work with universities continued through the year.

• The New South Wales registry hosted four moot courts for the University of New England.
• The Queensland registry hosted the IMLAN moot (TC Beirne School of Law), the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Students’ moot competition, the Maritime moot with students from the University of Queensland and the grand final of the QILC 2018 moot.
• The Victorian registry hosted a number of moot courts for Monash, Melbourne, New England, La Trobe, Victoria and Deakin universities. The registry also hosted the RMIT Clarb Australia Pre-Moot Grand Final.
• The Tasmanian registry hosted students from the University of Tasmania as part of their labour law excursion. The registry also provided facilities for the AAT national mooting competition grand final in October 2018.
• In the Australian Capital Territory, Judicial Registrar Lackenby presented to masters students of dispute resolution at the Australian National University. The paper was titled ADR in the Federal Court and the AAT.

Overseas delegations

Registries regularly host visiting delegations from overseas courts who are interested in learning more about the Court’s operations. This year overseas delegations visited the following registries:

• New South Wales – in December 2018 the registry hosted a delegation from the Tokyo District Court. Judge Yuriko met with Justice Perram and Justice Katzmann.
• Australian Capital Territory – in February 2019, the Canberra registry hosted a delegation from the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, Republic of Indonesia. The delegation learnt about bankruptcy and corporate insolvency and sat in on Registrar Lackenby’s corporations and bankruptcy lists. In March 2019, Rie O, Court Clerk from the Tokyo Family Court and Visiting Scholar from the ANU College of Law, visited the Canberra registry to learn about the role of registrars in our court and court practice and procedure.

Complaints

During the reporting year, complaints were made to the Court in relation to its procedures, rules, forms, timeliness or courtesy to users. For the purpose of collecting data about complaints, several discrete reports made by a complainant about a single issue or a set of related issues were recorded as a single complaint.

There were 12 complaints in the reporting year. This figure is up from 11 complaints recorded last year. This figure does not include complaints about the merits of a decision by a judge, which may only be dealt with by way of appeal, or complaints about the merits of a decision of a registrar, which may only be dealt with by way of review.

Information about the Court’s feedback and complaints processes can be found at www.fedcourt.gov.au/feedback-and-complaints.

Involvement in legal education programs and legal reform activities (contribution to the legal system)

The Court is an active supporter of legal education programs, both in Australia and overseas. During the reporting year, the Chief Justice and many judges:

• presented papers, gave lectures and chaired sessions at judicial and other conferences, judicial administration meetings, continuing legal education courses and university law schools
• participated in Bar reading courses, Law Society meetings and other public meetings, and
• held positions on advisory boards or councils or committees.

An outline of the judges’ work in this area is included in Appendix 8 (Judges’ activities).

National standard on judicial education

In 2010 a report entitled ‘Review of the National Standard for Professional Development for Australian Judicial Officers’ was prepared for the National Judicial College of Australia. The Court was invited and agreed to adopt a recommendation from that report to include information in the Court’s annual report about:

• participation by members of the Court in judicial professional development activities
• whether the proposed standard for professional development was met during the year by the Court, and
• if applicable, what prevented the Court meeting the standard (such as judicial officers being unable to be released from court, lack of funding etc.).

The standard provides that judicial officers identify up to five days a year on which they could participate in professional development activities.

During 2018–19 the Court offered the following activities:

• eleven education sessions were scheduled at the judges’ meeting on 29–31 August 2018 (in Sydney)
• eight education sessions were scheduled at the judges’ meeting on 27–29 March 2019 (in Brisbane), and
• judges were offered the opportunity to attend the Supreme Court and Federal Court judges’ conference held in Hobart, Tasmania on 21–23 January 2019.

Education sessions offered at the judges’ meetings in 2018–19 included:

• workshops on the following national practice areas:
  • native title
  • admiralty and maritime
  • commercial and corporations
  • other federal jurisdiction – defamation law, and
  • administrative and constitutional law and human rights – migration.
• digital roadshow – benefits of using electronic resources
• innovation: technology and its discontents
• concise statements and the National Court Framework Practice Notes
• court referred alternative dispute resolution: perceptions of members of the judiciary
• Federal Court and Law Council of Australia joint conference on competition law, including sessions on:
  • penalties
  • substantial lessening of competition
  • concerted practices, and
  • economic evidence.
• session for judges under three years: managing your judicial practice
• the US federal judiciary – relations with the legislative and executive
• how the Court manages migration work
• using digital court books for single judge migration hearings: one way to learn how to work with a digital court record
• the story of a boat person who made it to Australia, and
• ex tempore reasons; revising reasons; when reasons are required.

In addition to the above, judges undertook other education activities through participation in seminars and conferences. Some of these are set out in Appendix 8 (Judges’ activities).

In 2018–19, the Federal Court met the National Standard for Professional Development for Australian Judicial Officers.

Work with international jurisdictions

In 2018–19, the Court continued to coordinate a number of projects and activities to support governance, access to justice and the rule of law within neighbouring judiciaries. By collaborating with courts, predominantly across the Asia Pacific region, the Court was able to contribute to a number of our partners’ important reform and development priorities.

Supreme Court of the Union of Myanmar

In August 2018, our Solutions Architect (Business Intelligence) provided further assistance to the Supreme Court of the Union of Myanmar as it continues to strengthen its capacity to collect and report on key court performance indicators. The visit comprised a workshop on improving data collection and analysis, which explored the role, benefits and processes for data collection and automation, data analysis, data monitoring, court reporting and key performance indicators. The Court also provided editing assistance in the preparation of the annual report.

National and Supreme Courts of Papua New Guinea

In September 2018, the Queensland registry hosted a five-person delegation from the National and Supreme Courts of Papua New Guinea (PNG). The delegation met with the acting National Judicial Registrar and District Registrar and a Senior Legal Case Manager to discuss the Court’s electronic case filing systems and processes. Delegates also met with the Manager of Library and Information Services to discuss the development of PNG’s new court library. In October 2018, the Manager of Library and Information Services visited Waigani, Port Moresby to conduct training for library staff on legal cataloguing, legal publications and online legal research. A blueprint for improving library services was developed and approved. A national survey about library needs has been conducted and the results are currently being analysed.

High Court of Solomon Islands

In September 2018, the Federal Court of Australia and the High Court of the Solomon Islands embarked on a component of the Memorandum of Understanding that relates to building the leadership skills of the Chief Magistrate. Meeting with the Senior Registrar, the Chief Magistrate discussed the range of challenges and opportunities in regard to the Magistracy and her leadership of the Magistrates Court, along with a guided approach to ongoing cooperation and options for moving forward.

In February 2019, the Deputy Principal Registrar visited the Solomon Islands and met with Chief Justice Palmer, staff of the Australian High Commission, officers of representative bodies and other governmental and policy staff. The purpose of the visit was to develop a model for self-administration and discuss the scope and form of legislation that will enable the judiciary to manage its own affairs, independent of the government. The Deputy Principal Registrar and Chief Justice Palmer also discussed strategies and capacity issues in relation to managing funds internally. Two representatives from PNG also participated to contribute their experience and views on the development and implementation of their self-administration model. The courts will continue to collaborate on this important project in the coming year.

Supreme Court of Indonesia

Chief Justice Allsop and the CEO and Principal Registrar visited Jakarta in June 2019 to discuss progress made by the judiciary in recent months and priority reform and development objectives. A plan for ongoing engagement between the Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of Indonesia is being developed.

Regional collaborations

The Court manages the New Zealand government funded Pacific Judicial Strengthening Initiative (PJSI), a five-year initiative that aims to build fairer societies by supporting the courts in 14 Pacific Island Countries (PICs) to develop more accessible, just, efficient and responsive justice services.

The PJSI comprises projects across five areas with the following intended outcomes:

1. Improved capacity of judicial leadership to assess needs, plan, own and lead judicial development locally.
2. Marginalised and vulnerable groups are better able to access justice in and through courts.
3. Partner courts operate with a higher level of professionalism.
4. Partner courts exhibit more responsive and just behaviour and treatment that is fair and reasonable (substantive justice).
5. Cases are disposed of more efficiently (procedural justice).

Leadership

In September 2019, the second regional judicial leadership workshop was held in Auckland, New Zealand. Participants shared experiences about what judicial leadership means in the Pacific and developed plans to address the challenges faced in implementing current leadership action plans.

The Executive Committee met remotely in October 2018, and in Palau in April 2019. The latter meeting was held adjacent to the fourth Chief Justices’ Leadership Forum, which was attended by 12 Chief Justices. The forum and committee endorsed PJSI’s progress, including the independent mid-term review and the design for PJSI’s two-year continuation.

In August 2018 and February 2019, PJSI delivered local project management and planning workshops in the Federated States of Micronesia and Vanuatu. The workshops aimed to develop self-reliance and confidence among participants to lead, design, deliver, monitor, and evaluate ongoing judicial/court development activities using established steps, processes, methods and tools. Judicial officers and court staff valued the opportunity to discuss the Court’s innovations to improve access to justice and their roles in associated activities.

Access to Justice

In October 2018 and March 2019, access to justice visits took place in the Cook Islands and Vanuatu. The Cook Islands visit comprised 10 consultations with 75 court users in four locations. Consultations highlighted the need for increased public awareness of the role and functions of the courts and basic-level education on legal rights and responsibilities. A workshop with the Court took place in Rarotonga, with the intention of recognising and responding to the significant barriers that the consultations suggest impede access to justice.

The activity in Vanuatu comprised a week of consultations on the islands of Pentecost, Santo, Malo and Epi, and a three-day workshop with the Court in Port Vila. Consultations revealed that 75 per cent of participants consider the courts to be independent, honest, competent, and to act with integrity. Two-thirds consider the courts are fair and provide access to justice/remedies, while half consider the courts to be efficient. Participants discussed their experiences and perceptions of the courts, which has since prompted court officers to develop plans to improve access to justice and court services as well as publish public information on the courts.

Professionalism

In November 2018, a workshop was held in Port Moresby to build the capacity of partner courts in the collection of data, and the systems, processes and planning required to monitor, manage and report on court performance.

In January 2019, local orientation activities took place in Tarawa, Kiribati. The visit included a two-day train-the-trainer session, followed by a lay judicial orientation workshop. The workshop promoted the competence of magistrates to perform their duties; built the capacity of local trainers to conduct judicial orientation training; and promoted excellence in the delivery of justice across Kiribati.

A regional lay judicial officer decision making workshop was held in February 2019 in Honiara, Solomon Islands. The aim of the workshop was to improve the decision making ability of the participants through the development of judgment writing, presentation and reasoning skills.

A judicial mentoring toolkit was developed and is currently being piloted by a newly appointed Supreme Court judge in Vanuatu. The judge is being mentored by PJSI’s adviser and an expatriate judge from New Zealand who sits on the Supreme Court. The pilot will be reviewed and the results used to refine the toolkit and approach for adaptation to other PICs.

The Pathway Project continues its collaboration with the PNG Centre for Judicial Excellence to build the institutional and human capacity for it to deliver ongoing education to judicial and court officers in PNG and across the Pacific. In March 2019, a train-the-trainers workshop for the PNG CJE took place in Port Moresby, to better assess needs, design, deliver and evaluate judicial training activities.

In May 2019, a PJSI adviser visited the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Port Vila to evaluate and refine the Certificate of Justice commissioned by PJSI and piloted by the USP. On completion of the pilot, it is expected that 85–90 students will successfully complete these four courses in the Certificate of Justice at the end of semesters 1 and 2 of 2019. A Diploma of Justice, providing a second year of study following the Certificate of Justice, is currently being developed following approval from the USP Senate. It is intended to provide a pathway into degree-level study, and eventually, legal practice. It is anticipated that the Diploma of Justice will be launched in 2020.

Substantive justice

Gender and family violence workshops were delivered in Vanuatu, Palau, the FSM and Samoa in August 2018, November 2018, February 2019 and May 2019. The workshops fostered understanding of the gender inequality at the source of gender and family violence, identified strengths and weaknesses in the Court’s approach to related cases, and determined how the weaknesses will be addressed.

Two human rights workshops took place in Tonga in February 2019. Discussions included how human rights standards can be applied in both substantive and procedural justice as well as accountability and access to justice. Strong demand for orders under the Family Protection Act 2013 is requiring the Tongan courts to create equally accessible and responsive mechanisms to deliver appropriate outcomes.

Procedural justice

In July 2018, PJSI conducted an accountability visit to support the Samoan judiciary in analysing data collected through their information management system. Following this, the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration in Samoa are working towards creating an electronic database to enable the entry of court related data and the production of reports.

PJSI has continued to support the collection, analysis and reporting of court performance data: providing remote support to 10 PICs over the last financial year and communicating with all 14 PICs. PJSI published the Third Court Performance Trend Report updating the Court Performance Baseline Report of 2011. It presents a picture of significant improvements in court annual reporting over the last seven years.

The PJSI efficiency adviser undertook visits to the Nauru, Tokelauan and PNG Courts in January, March and May 2019. The visits aimed to provide support to assist the courts to dispose of cases in a reasonable time.

The activity in Nauru comprised the development and conduct of an efficiency self-assessment, along with refinements to the Nauru Judiciary’s Improvement Plan, to address identified areas for improvement.

The in-country work with Tokelau (in Samoa) achieved the following outcomes: the conduct of an efficiency review; the development of an efficiency improvement plan; collation of outstanding data for the 2016–17 and 2017–18 annual reports; development of a draft standard operating procedure for case-flow as well as a draft complaints procedure; and the establishment of time goals.

The work with PNG supported the National Court and Supreme Court of PNG to identify strategies to manage and dispose of cases in a way that is just, timely, efficient and fair.

Further support to Palau was provided through a leadership incentive fund grant, which introduced periodic efficiency reviews. The results of these reviews inform actions to address ongoing deficiencies in performance against time goals.

Under the Information and Communications Technology Project, support to PNG was bolstered by a data system assessment that took place in July 2018. The aim of the assessment was to plan for improvements to the breadth and quality of available and reported court performance data. To that end, an assessment was made of the information currently captured and reported on, versus the information the judiciary wishes to capture and report on; along with the system’s functionality and human capacity required to achieve the latter. A data systems assessment was also conducted in the Marshall Islands in October 2018. The assessment focused on the quality of data maintained within extant online records, and readiness to move towards a Case Tracking System.

Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

Pursuant to a Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Court prepared four ‘judicial primers’ for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states. The judicial primers were drafted by Justice Middleton and the National Judicial Registrar-Appeals. The primer series was launched by Justice Robertson in Jakarta. Justice Robertson also delivered to the same audience of Indonesian judges a workshop on ‘Using Circumstantial Evidence: Judicial Perspectives from Australia (Procedures and Principles)’ and following the event, Justice Middleton recorded a video for broader dissemination across the ASEAN region.

Visitors to the Court

During the year, the Court hosted visitors from the following countries.

Sri Lanka: In August, a delegation of Sri Lankan judges visited the Court to discuss court matters of common interest, including case management of appeals and first instance matters. The delegation comprised of judges from the Sri Lankan Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. They were hosted by Justice Kenny, National Judicial Registrar Luxton, the Acting Director of Court Services and the Melbourne Law School.

China: In October 2018, a delegation of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region officials visited the Court to learn about the role and functions of the Court in Australia’s legal system. The delegation was hosted by Justice Yates, a Judicial Registrar, a Legal Case Manager, and a Client Services Officer. Topics discussed included the relationship between the State and Federal governments, the Australian court system, the Court’s powers and case management system.

Nepal: In June 2019, a delegation from the National Judicial Academy, Nepal (NJA-Nepal) visited the Court’s Queen’s Square premises in Sydney. Justice Yates hosted the delegation, presenting an overview of the Australian court system and discussed the value of the e-courtroom during a trial. The delegation observed Justice Yates preside over a court hearing, toured the registry and asked questions about the Court’s operations.