Lawrence pleads for ‘collapsed’ NT legal system
By John Lawrence*, as first posted in the NT Independent
Following a week of daily ABC and NT News reports describing the chaos and breakdown within the Darwin Local Court, the NT Attorney General Ms Marie-Clare Boothby and the NT Director of Public Prosecutions Mr Lloyd Babb SC decided to turn up together in a presumably coordinated plan to reassure the community that there was nothing to worry about, i.e. a ‘nothing to see here’ message; other than ‘hard-working lawyers doing a good job in all the circumstances’.
What a joke!
This ‘performance’, and what do we receive these days that isn’t a ‘performance’, is what you get living in the “Post Truth Age”.
The previous week, the media had reported on the record prison numbers caused, in part, by the CLP’s new “Penal Populist” laws following their electoral triumph of August 2024. These laws included: “Declan’s Law”, more mandatory sentencing, and reducing the age of criminal responsibility back down to 10.
The prison numbers are overwhelming the jails’ capacity, the watch houses’ capacity, and the Local Court’s ability to process cases, thus leading to chaos and bringing the courts to a standstill and disrepute.
‘Boothby and Babb Show’
Thus followed the ‘Boothby and Babb’ show, accompanied with photos, telling the community that everything was fine. Or as we say in Australia: “it’s all good, mate”, which nowadays usually means the opposite.
The Director even commended the Attorney General in visiting and observing the Court and “all the good work that all the different players in the justice system were doing”. This affected performance was counterproductive, unedifying and contra principle.
Most people reading about this would have concluded that the “nothing to see here” spruik actually meant there obviously was plenty to see here, i.e. the system seems to be broken and in collapse.
Further, the principle of the Separation of Powers requires the DPP to be completely independent and distanced from the Government of the day. To participate in this almost “presser” like event breached that principle, which is there to assure the community, in reality and appearance, that our prosecution have no relationship with any limb of Government that could in any way compromise their responsibilities in the laying of charges and prosecuting the same. That appearance has arguably now been compromised.
‘Leaders choose not to admit the truth’
That aspect aside, the most disturbing and depressing aspect of this post-truth performance is not that it provides further evidence that our court “system” is in collapse but worse; it also shows the community that the leaders within our system choose not to admit the truth, face up to it and demand its rectification.
In this I include the Judiciary, the NT Bar Association, CLANT, NAAJA, NTLAC, and the NT Law Society. The most that the legal profession’s representative bodies have done, and will probably continue to do, is issue the odd bleating statement expressing their “concerns” and sometimes their “deep concerns” about the situation.
Such statements mean, and lead to, nothing. This is the reality of where we are at. Nothingness abounds from the players who happen to be responsible for what is the collapse of the Northern Territory’s legal system.
- John B. Lawrence SC is a Darwin barrister. He was a Crown prosecutor in Darwin and later solicitor in charge of the Northern Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service. He is a past president of the Northern Bar Association and of the Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory.
With thanks to the NT Independent : Original headline
Opinion: What the ‘Boothby and Babb show’ tells us about the state of the NT’s legal system (paywall). https://tinyurl.com/mrxsbja6