Page 42 - Keeping the Peace

36 Keeping the Peace – A History of Honorary Justices in Victoria
1990s and 2000s: attending to quality as well as quantity
The 1990s saw a rise in demand for new JPs to be appointed. People were not always available to perform the administrative tasks they were required to fulfil. In 1993, Mr Sietz, the Member for Keilor alerted parliament to the problems in his electorate due to the shortage of JPs in his area, and the large needs of migrants to have documents witnessed.75
The decade saw increasing diversity in the composition of new JP appointments. There was also recognition of the need to diversify those who took on the role of BJ. The first Indigenous BJs were sworn in on 13 November 2001 in a ceremony opened by the Attorney-General, the Honorable Rob Hulls. The group of 13 then commenced duty in Sunraysia, Balllarat, Bendigo, Gippsland, Goulburn Valley as well as metropolitan Melbourne.
The roles of JPs and BJs were duly honoured in the International Year of the Volunteer in 2001. That same year the Member for Bennettswood, Mr Wilson, put out a call for additional JPs in his area and five new appointments were made.76 Yet certain areas still suffered from a deficit in appointments. The Wimmera, for example, had only two BJs and the parlimentary member for the area requested that there be greater training and that requests for appointments be processed.77
The number of Victorian HJ groups and associations continued to grow. The role of HJ could be isolating and membership provided peer support and networking opportunities. HJs could continue to enjoy collegiate support with the RVAHJ, as they had done since its inception in 1910 or join one of the new independent groups HJs had established in Dandenong, Geelong, Melbourne’s Outer East, East Gippsland, Shepparton and Victoria’s Western Region.
75 76 77
Victorian Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Assembly 16 March 1993, p. 220. Victorian Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Assembly, 6 June 2001, p. 1675. Victorian Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Assembly, 4 June 2002, p. 2113.