Judges for the bush - Marshall's bold campaign to end 'fly-in, fly-out justice'

Fairfax Media can reveal the Northern Tablelands MP is calling for judges to live in the bush across NSW to stop what he says is “fly in, fly out justice” or a Sydney-centric sentencing regime being imposed on regional communities.

“You won’t have judges bringing a mindset of Sydney because our communities are not the Northern Beaches or the Inner West, where they come from and that’s the prism through which they make decisions,” he told Fairfax Media, announcing he was launching a ‘Judges for the Bush’ campaign today.

“Ultimately, I believe it will result in better decisions from the bench because they are going to understand the problems that are facing New England communities, like ice or domestic violence or that alcohol-related violence is out of control in some areas.”

Mr Marshall says the tipping point was when The Leader revealed a group of Glen Innes locals “high-

fiving” outside an Armidale court after escaping jail for assaulting two police officers.

“This was two of our own community members going about their job being violently attacked and there was a perception in the community that those offenders got off lightly,” Mr Marshall said.

“In my three years in this role, I have never have had so many calls about a particular decision from the court. People in Glen Innes and beyond were rightly outraged.”

Under the Marshall proposal, six district court judges would be  deployed to live permanently in six regional locations, including one in the New England in Tamworth, Armidale or Moree.

District courts in those three towns alone collectively sit for more than 40 weeks a year with Sydney-based judges rotating on circuit.

At present, only two judges are permanently based outside of Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong – in Dubbo and Lismore.

“I’ve been told, its common knowledge in legal circles, that solicitors say ‘don’t worry ...we’ll get you a better result on appeal’ so it’s obvious that people exploit the fact that we have fly-in, fly-out justice,” Mr Marshall said.

“What is seen as a horrific, terrible crime in this region, when they sit in Sydney they may see those cases come through the court all the time and hence we have that disconnect between the judiciary and the community that lives through the impacts of their decisions.”

Mr Marshall said he has already raised the issue in the Nationals party room and has spoken with the Attorney-General.