Toronto Courthouse

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Speakers - Saffin The Hon Janelle; Shaw The Hon Jeffrey
Business - Questions Without Notice

TORONTO COURTHOUSE

The Hon. JANELLE SAFFIN: My question without notice is directed to the Attorney General. Will the Attorney General inform the House of what the Government is doing to ensure that the people of Toronto, in the Lake Macquarie region, are provided with up-to-date and adequate court facilities?

The Hon. J. W. SHAW: Last week I had the pleasure of travelling to Toronto to unveil the building plans for the new Toronto courthouse and to meet the local member of Parliament, Mr Jeffrey Hunter, in the performance of that ceremony. The Government has provided funding for the construction of an additional courthouse in the Lake Macquarie region at Toronto. The Toronto courthouse will join the courthouses at Wallsend, Belmont and Newcastle in serving the people of the Hunter region.

The site was secured in 1982 and was dedicated by the then Attorney General, Frank Walker, for the future construction of a courthouse. It is interesting to note that the member for Lake Macquarie at the time of the dedication was the
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present member’s father, Mr Merv Hunter, whom I knew when I first came into this Parliament. The current member is very pleased to see his father’s plans for the region come to fruition. Planning for a two-court complex on this site is well advanced. It is expected that the tender for the construction of the building will be met at the end of this financial year. The building works are due to be finalised by October 1999.

My Government and the department are committed to improving access to the court system and to ensuring that courts meet the needs of the communities they serve. In line with that commitment, the new building will be at the forefront in providing adequate and appropriate facilities for the public, the legal profession, court users, the judiciary and court staff. The new courthouse will incorporate many new features which will provide a benchmark for courthouses throughout the State. Special attention is being paid to the needs of people with disabilities. The building has been oriented to take advantage of passive energy savings by allowing natural light into waiting areas while providing a pleasant private outlook into landscaped areas.

Remote witness facilities will allow evidence of vulnerable witnesses to be taken without subjecting the witness to the fear and intimidation of coming face to face with an alleged offender in the body of the courtroom. The new courthouse will also provide facilities for victims of crime which will offer privacy and seclusion. Volunteer organisations will be able to extend hospitality and support to victims of crime in secure and comfortable surroundings. The entrances to the new courthouse have been designed to provide a calm and dignified environment. The Toronto courthouse is to be the first of a new generation of courthouses where quality of service is the benchmark against which to measure and plan improvements to the existing stock of more than 160 court buildings throughout the State.

Many courthouses in New South Wales are of enormous historic significance. They are wonderful buildings. I am pleased to say that the Government has not closed and does not contemplate closing any one of them. But it must be said that it is also interesting to build a new courthouse and to embody new ideas in that structure of court procedure, the rights of victims and the like. That is the opportunity and challenge the Government has in Toronto to build a modern, state-of-the-art courthouse which will incorporate many design features that will be followed in other courthouses as they are built over time.

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