The volume of
Court work originating
in the region
3
With over 2 million people in the
GWS region, and tens of thousands of
businesses operating throughout the
region, the volume of criminal and civil
cases originating in the GWS region alone
constitute a fair proportion of the annual
workload of the Family Court, Federal Court
and NSW Supreme Court.
The availability of
Law Chambers and
Barristers in the region
There are two Barrister Chambers located
in Parramatta with over forty barristers:
Arthur Phillip Chambers and Lachlan
Macquarie Chambers.
4
As no data is compiled on the residential
locations of plaintiffs, respondents or
witnesses in Court matters, it is not possible
to quantify the number of residents of the
GWS region involved annually in cases being
considered. It is fair to surmise however that,
as the region comprises over twenty-five
per cent of the State’s population, at least
that proportion of cases and participants
originate from the GWS region.
The law requires creditors to apply to the
Supreme Court for a company, unable to
pay its debts, to be wound up. Hundreds
of businesses each year in the GWS region
face this situation and all are currently
required to travel 30-55 kilometres into
Supporting these Chambers are over two
hundred law firms in Parramatta alone.
There are at least another one hundred
law firms spread through the rest of the
GWS region.
Therefore, there is capacity to service
the operation of a Supreme Court and
an expanded Family Court and Federal
Court, in Parramatta with the existing legal
professionals. There would, of course, be
significant growth in this capability should
a Supreme Court be established here, and
an expanded Family Court and Federal
Court, as existing Barristers Chambers
and specialist law firms in the Sydney CBD
would open offices in the Parramatta and
GWS region to service their clients and
court workload.
the Sydney CBD from the various locales
within the region to have these matters
dealt with by the Supreme Court. As these
proceedings often involve extensive delays
and frequent appearances or submissions
of documents, plaintiffs and applicants face
significant expense and time impacts in
accessing the Court in the Sydney CBD.
Hundreds of Family and Federal Court
cases from this region are heard in the
Sydney CBD because there are not enough
Justices attached to the Parramatta division.
This creates real hardship for families of
this region who lose days off work and
significant amounts of travel time being
forced into the city for their cases.
The region has lost many Barristers and law
firms back into the Sydney CBD because of
the lack of court work in the western Sydney
region. Should additional Justices be appointed
to the Family Court and a permanent
Supreme Court be established, more Barristers
Chambers will be established and many
barristers and lawyers will return to Parramatta.
Support for this proposal
This proposal is supported by the following organisations.
•Champion Legal
•Parramatta & District Law Society
•Sydney Business Chamber
– Western Sydney
•University of Western Sydney Law School
•Whitlam Institute
•Deloitte
•Parramatta City Council
•Parramatta Chamber of Commerce
•DeVries Tayeh
Access to Justice
for Western Sydney
This paper sets out the facts and relevant information in support of the campaign
to gain much better court services at Parramatta from both Federal and State
Governments to significantly improve access for the people of western Sydney to
the justice system. The people of this region deserve to have fully functioning Courts
at the Federal Court, Family Court, NSW Supreme Court and District Court levels.
Parramatta has a well-established Justice Precinct that is significantly under-utilised,
disadvantaging the residents of this region. The case is based on four key factors:
1.
2.
3.
4.
The size of
the Greater
Western Sydney
region
The availability
of modern Court
facilities in
Parramatta
The volume of
Court work
originating in
the region
The availability of
Law Chambers and
Barristers in the
region
A Supreme Court
in parramatta
The proposition to establish a permanent
Supreme Court in Parramatta to service the
whole western Sydney region is supported
by the Law Society in Parramatta, the
Sydney Business Chamber, other Business
organisations in Parramatta, Local
Government representatives in the region,
and State MPs in the region.
The proposal is consistent with State
Government policy objectives to
decentralise Government facilities away
from the Sydney CBD and closer to the
people and businesses with which they
interact. This practice over the past twenty
The size of the region
Greater Western Sydney (GWS) region
is one of the fastest growing regions of
the country. Depending on how Greater
Western Sydney’s regional boundaries
are defined, the population is between
1.5 million to over 2 million people.
For the purposes of this paper, GWS is
defined as incorporating the following
Local Government Areas (LGAs):
•Auburn
•Canterbury
•Bankstown
• Fairfield
1
•Blacktown
•Hills
•Camden
•Holroyd
•Campbelltown
•Liverpool
•Parramatta
•Penrith
•Wollondilly
years has seen a number of Government
departments relocate to Parramatta. The
establishment of the Parramatta Justice
Precinct, and the availability of major new
Court facilities at this location, provides the
logical platform upon which a Supreme
Court can be established at this location.
Every week, hundreds of residents and
business people in Parramatta and GWS
are required to travel by public transport
or private vehicles into the Sydney CBD
to have their matters dealt with in the
NSW Supreme Court. This imposes huge
additional financial and time costs on these
people and businesses which is inefficient
and uneconomic. There are significant
time delays in having matters dealt with
This region has a total population of
2.005 million people and is growing at
1.5 per cent a year. With a population
of that size, the region is a comparable
jurisdiction to the City of Brisbane, and is
larger in population that the State Capitals
of Perth and Adelaide.
The city of Parramatta is the largest city
in the region and is the natural ‘capital’
of the region. Most transport corridors
in GWS connect to Parramatta and the
city is the most significant service centre
for the region. The Parramatta CBD is
well serviced with public transport and
significant A Grade Commercial Office
space is available.
The population of the City of Parramatta
was 174,554 in 2011, which represented
an annual population increase of 3,936
persons, or 2.3% over the level recorded in
2010. The population increase in the City of
Parramatta in 2011 was significantly higher
than the averages for the Sydney Region
(1.2%) and New South Wales (0.9%). Over
the past five years, the population of the
City of Parramatta has been growing at an
by the Supreme Court because all these
matters must be addressed in the Sydney
CBD rather than being more efficiently
distributed to a regional centre from which
many cases originate.
There is an urgent and logical case for
the proposal for the establishment of a
Supreme Court in Parramatta and the
appointment of five or more Justices
to such a Court. Action to have this
implemented is strongly recommended to
the relevant authorities.
average annual rate of 2.6%, again much
higher than the growth rates for the Sydney
Region (1.5%) and New South Wales (1.1%)
over the same period.
Over the past twenty years, under
successive State governments, a number
of large Government departments and
agencies have been located in Parramatta.
The Office of State Revenue, NSW Police
Headquarters, Sydney Water, Department
of Attorney-General & Justice, and the
Department of Fair Trading are all now
located in Parramatta. The largest health
precinct in Australia is located at Westmead
inside Parramatta City boundary. The
growing and dynamic University of
Western Sydney has its major campus
at Rydalmere and is expanding to add a
new campus within the Parramatta CBD.
Large corporations such as Deloitte have
established major offices in Parramatta.
Many other companies have significant
offices in Parramatta servicing the
western region.
The availability of
modern Court facilities
in Parramatta
Parramatta Justice Precinct
In 2009, new Courts and administrative
offices for the NSW Department of
Attorney-General and Justice were opened
in the area known as the Parramatta Justice
Precinct. Other legal offices and facilities in
this precinct include the Children’s Court
of New South Wales, with six purpose
built Children’s Courts, the Sydney West
Trial Courts with nine state of the art
Court rooms, Legal Aid Commission of
New South Wales, Office of Trustee and
Guardian (formerly the Office of the
2
Protective Commissioner), NSW Registry
of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Office of
the Director of Public Prosecutions, as well
as a branch of the Family Court. Nearby
on Marsden Street is the Parramatta
Court House and the Drug Court of
New South Wales.
The Garfield Barwick Commonwealth
With such a range of facilities and courts
available in this Justice Precinct, there is
ample scope for the addition of a Supreme
Court within existing facilities until such time
as the growth of its responsibilities requires
additional court facilities to be constructed.
It is also not unreasonable to propose
that five or six Justices be appointed to
preside in Supreme Court operations in a
Parramatta Jurisdiction.
based in Parramatta, these courts are
Law Courts Building, housing courts of
the Federal Magistrates Court and the
Family Court of Australia, are a few metres
away in George Street, Parramatta. There
are thirteen courts in the facility but with
only one Family Court Justice currently
significantly under-utilised. There is scope
for the addition of several more Family
Court Justices, as was the case twenty years
ago, as well as expanding the use of these
courts to hear other Federal Court matters.
Parramatta should become a permanent
base for the operation of the Federal
Court hearing insolvency, human rights,
immigration and other Federal law cases.
Greater Western Sydney
Population2.005m
Annual growth
29,000 or 1.5%
Municipalities
Auburn, Bankstown, Blacktown,
Camden, Campbelltown, Canterbury,
Fairfield, Hills, Holroyd, Liverpool,
Parramatta, Penrith, Wollondilly
Blacktown
Castle
Hill
Penrith
PARRAMATTA
Sydney
Liverpool
If Western Sydney
was a separate
city it would rank
between Brisbane
and Perth in size.
Bankstown
Camden
Campbelltown
Picton
Wollongong