President of the Orana Law Society Andrew Boog is hoping this law term will be the one that brings the promise of a drug court to Dubbo.
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The official opening of the 2019 law term was held on Monday. Judge John North addressed members of the legal profession, police officers and school children in the court about the importance of the justice system.
It was followed by a mass at St Brigid’s Church and morning tea.
The opening marks the first sitting day of the district court for the year.
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Mr Boog said his hope for this term was the announcement of a drug court and residential rehabilitation facility in Dubbo, which he believed was five to ten years overdue.
“A magistrate has commented that he has yet to see a domestic violence matter in his court that did not involve drugs or alcohol,” Mr Boog said.
“We're a community that's very concerned about domestic violence. We have lots of funding and lots of programs and we have lots of awareness raising and we have absolutely nothing locally to address the underlying cause.”
Mr Boog said at the moment when dealing with a repeat domestic violence offender magistrates had a choice to either give them another bond or send them to jail.
“Which one will fix them up? Which one will create a competent member of society? Neither of them,” he said.
The Orana Law Society president said rehabilitation could be considered going “soft on crime”, but if being “tough on crime” kept running up expenses and didn’t stop the crime from occurring it was a better alternative.
“Of all countries in the world Australia should be most aware of it because that's how we started, by someone being tough on crime. And guess what? It didn't work,” he said.
Rehabilitation was not an easy option, Mr Boog said.
“You have to participate in a meaningful way, you have to partake in programs, you have to stay clean, you are tested three times a week to make sure you're clean and if you misbehave in some way, back to court you go,” he said.
“You are on a knife edge all the time. If you behave yourself, the support services are there. If you misbehave, back to court you go and you might be going to Wellington.”
Mr Boog said the opening of the law term was a reminder of the judicial system’s important role in civilised community.
It showed Australia’s legal system was based on valued principals where people weren’t used as pawns in a political gain.