One of Newcastle\u2019s three Federal Circuit Court judges has retired, leaving the community in the dark over a future replacement.
\nFederal Circuit Court judge Janet Terry reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 earlier this month, with no announcement from the Federal Government about her prospective replacement.
\n\u201cThe Federal Government has a responsibility to provide efficient and appropriate judicial and court services to the people of Newcastle,\u201d Ms Claydon said.
\nFollowing reports of Judge Terry\u2019s retirement, Ms Claydon wrote to Attorney-General Senator Michaelia Cash on 31 July seeking clarification over the retired judge\u2019s successor.
\nMs Claydon stated that she is still waiting to receive a response from Senator Cash on the appointment process.
\n\u201cThis isn\u2019t the first time the Liberal Government has failed to appoint a replacement Federal Circuit Court judge in Newcastle within a timely manner.\u201d
\n\u201cLast time the Government waited many months to find a replacement, leaving judges with twice the case load and Novocastrians on waitlists for nineteen months, subsequently blowing the backlog out of proportion.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m sick of the Morrison Liberal government\u2019s inability to forward plan a timely replacement, given they know full well that judges are compelled to retire at the age of 70.\u201d
\nMs Claydon said that lives could be put at risk if a replacement for Judge Terry is not actioned immediately, given that many cases involve the trauma of martial breakdown, domestic violence, drug abuse, and child custody disputes.
\n\u201cThe Morrison Government\u2019s failure to find a replacement is deeply distressing for the many families who are already in vulnerable circumstances.\u201d
\nMs Claydon stated that the Morrison Government\u2019s negligence will place an extra burden on the already underfunded judicial system.
\n\u201cOnce a replacement judge is installed, there will still be the issue of the massive backlog that has resulted from the Government\u2019s continuous attacks on the Family Court system.\u201d
\n\u201cWith retired judges set to return to the bench to clear the national 7,000 case backlog, the last thing the Hunter region needs is an empty appointment and unnecessary grief for families.\u201d
\n\u201cI intend to raise this issue in Parliament next week.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of Newcastle\u2019s three Federal Circuit Court judges has retired, leaving the community in the dark over a future replacement. Federal Circuit Court judge Janet Terry reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 earlier this month, with no announcement from the Federal Government about her prospective replacement. \u201cThe Federal Government has a responsibility to provide … Continue reading “Deja vu as no replacement Federal Circuit Court judge in sight”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12558\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}