THE HON MARK DREYFUS KC MP
ATTORNEY-GENERAL
CABINET SECRETARY
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
Evening Reception with the PNG Legal Profession
Strong and Prosperous Democracies: the Importance of the Rule of Law
Port Moresby
Tuesday 18 June 2024
Thank you all for joining me this evening for my address on strong and prosperous democracies: the importance of the rule of law.
I am privileged to be here in Port Moresby. And I am delighted to join you with so many distinguished guests. In particular, may I acknowledge:
- The Minister for Justice and Attorney General of Papua New Guinea, the Honourable Pila Niningi, LLB, MP;
- Mrs Lillian Woruba, Acting Secretary, Department of Justice and the Attorney-General
I also welcome ministers, members of the judiciary, statutory office holders, members of the legal profession, ladies and gentlemen.
Papua New Guinea and Australia share a history stretching back thousands of years, through exploration, trade and partnership.
This shared history continues today and has instilled a deep and mutual respect among our peoples.
I will speak to you this evening about our shared challenges, our different approaches to tackling those challenges, and how our collaboration strengthens a crucial value that underpins democracy in both our nations - the rule of law. The rule of law is the foundational framework for a society where power is wielded - not arbitrarily, but with accountability and predictability.
For a society and a nation to be free, prosperous and successful, there must be respect for the rule of law.
What is the rule of law?
John Locke, 17th century philosopher and seminal influence on the modern democratic system, famously said that “The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom”.
The rule of law holds immense power in shaping our societies and determining the path our countries will take into the future.
The rule of law is more than just a phrase, or words on a page. The rule of law drives a nation’s progress.
The rule of law means equality before the law, that no matter a person’s background, access to power or resources, they are subject to the same laws, fairly applied.
The rule of law protects the essential rights and freedoms of every person, acting as a check on the power of the government and ensuring that it remains accountable to the people through independent courts and democratic processes.
Finally, it fosters economic growth and development. Investors and entrepreneurs can engage in business activity with the confidence that they know and can trust the rules that apply to them, and that they will be able to enjoy the fruits of their labour.
The rule of law can unlock the potential of a country, and Papua New Guinea has immense potential. Abundant natural resources, a young and growing population and an extraordinary cultural heritage.
But the rule of law can never be taken for granted.
Legal institutions and a well trained, supported and ethical legal profession are essential to ensuring that the rule of law continues to function effectively and consistently.
Members of the legal profession know the crucial role lawyers play in maintaining the rule of law.
Lawyers dedicated to the highest ethical and professional standards act as guardians of the rule of law, advocating for its application and challenging violations.
A lawyer advises clients on their rights and obligations and drafts contracts and other documents, helping them to avoid pitfalls and promoting a culture of respect for and compliance with the law.
They act as advocates on behalf of their clients, navigating a complex legal system and ensuring clients have access to a fair hearing.
Similarly, government lawyers ensure governments’ policies and programs comply with the law.
Government lawyers also have an important role in supporting further development of the law itself – through legislative reform and setting the highest standard when involved in legal challenges.
These are all vital functions of the legal profession to help maintain the rule of law.
This is what the legal profession does – but how we, as legal professionals, do our work also makes a difference.
By adhering to a strict ethical and professional standard, lawyers foster public trust in the legal system.
By avoiding and managing conflicts of interest, and firmly advocating for clients within the bounds of the law, lawyers demonstrate integrity and instil confidence in the fairness of the system.
This trust is vital for encouraging people to use the legal system to resolve disputes and hold authorities accountable.
Law students – community contributions
To instil a culture of professional and ethical excellence the legal profession needs knowledgeable, well-trained, community-oriented graduates who understand how the law can be used ethically to address disadvantage and social injustice.
Australia has well-established links between community legal centres and law schools, enabling motivated law students to build valuable skills while completing their studies and contributing to their communities.
Community legal centres provide legal and non-legal support, guidance and representation to the most vulnerable members of society.
They help to create a more equitable legal system by increasing access to justice and ensuring quality legal assistance is available to Australians in need.
Here in PNG the Legal Training Institute helps legal graduates participate in legal aid programs – providing benefits to community members who access legal aid, and graduates seeking to become lawyers.
Young lawyers like Emma Minimbi, supported by her law firm and Ashurst, are also working in local communities on issues like violence against women. These are admirable emerging practices and the start of PNG’s own community legal centre model.
Strong connections between the legal profession and the community deepen trust in the fairness and equity of the justice system.
Pro bono
This connection is also strengthened when lawyers give back to their communities through providing legal services on a pro bono basis.
In Australia, lawyers and law firms are encouraged to sign up to the National Pro Bono Target – a voluntary and aspirational target of 35 hours of pro bono legal services per lawyer per year.
The Australian Government has now made clear all those firms who work for the Government our expectations by naming all those on our legal services panel that do not meet this target.
Pro bono services are a valuable and selfless source of quality legal support for our charities, community organisations and vulnerable citizens.
As a legal profession, we should be proud of how our contributions reinforce the social fabric of our communities and our nations.
Continuing legal education
A legal education forms a foundation and connection to both the profession and your colleagues that is lifelong.
It was 1987 when I undertook the Victorian Bar readers course – an intensive training experience to prepare for becoming a barrister in my home state.
During that course, I came to know a man from Papua New Guinea named Robert Guba Aisi.
Over many years, young PNG lawyers have joined the Victorian Bar Readers Course, and Robert was one of them. We got along well.
Many years later in 2011, after I finished my career at the Victorian Bar and had entered the Australian Parliament, I was a junior Minister for Climate Change and in New York at the United Nations – and I happened to see Robert.
He was then Papua New Guinea’s Ambassador to the United Nations, and despite having not seen each other for over two decades, we recognised each other, and remembered how we had shared the Readers Course together.
It was wonderful to see the journey his legal career had taken him on, having also been Councillor of Papua New Guinea’s Legal Training Institute prior to the Ambassador role.
It struck me how beneficial it was for us to have connected all those years ago, and that training we both undertook no doubt assisted us in our careers.
A culture of professional excellence recognises the need for lawyers to continue their legal education throughout their careers.
The educational journey of a lawyer does not end with graduation from university or the legal training institute. It is a lifelong endeavour. The law does not remain static – it develops and evolves in accordance with the needs of society and the economy and so too must lawyers.
In today’s world, the pace of the change is increasing.
That is why formal continued legal education, or CLE, is a recognised part of many legal professions around the world, including in Australia.
Mandatory CLE is important not just to keep abreast of new developments in the law and emerging issues. CLE also provides an ongoing connection between each lawyer and the principles of ethical conduct and legal practice.
Here in Papua New Guinea, the PNG Centre for Judicial Excellence is leading delivery of ongoing judicial training. This is commendable and sets a standard for the legal profession to follow.
Ethics training is an integral part of the mandatory CLE regime in Australia.
I would encourage any jurisdiction to consider introducing mandatory CLE given the substantial benefits for the quality and standard of legal practice.
Engagement with courts
This brings me to another key marker of the legal profession’s commitment to ethical conduct and professional excellence - the manner in which lawyers, as officers of the court, engage with the courts.
When lawyers appear before the court, we should be well prepared. We should exercise our professional judgment in ensuring only those matters with genuine prospects of success are brought before the courts.
Even more importantly, lawyers must assist the courts in managing matters as they progress through the court’s processes.
The ideal world, and the ideal circumstances in which legal matters proceed, are sometimes beyond our reach.
Nevertheless, to the greatest extent possible before attending a hearing, lawyers should have the opportunity to seek proper instructions from their clients. They should also have the opportunity speak first with the lawyers for the other party or parties.
Whenever possible it assists the court for parties to attend with pre-drafted orders ready for the endorsement of the court, either agreed or with clearly articulated reasons for why agreement between the parties cannot be reached.
The agreement of procedural questions and the narrowing of matters in contention are crucial responsibilities of lawyers.
These processes help ensure that the courts are only asked to adjudicate on those issues that are necessary to determine genuine disputes between parties. This practice is a fundamental obligation of lawyers in acting ethically as legal professionals. Not only does it save the court time and resources, but clients are spared the delay, stress cost of unnecessary hearings and disputes.
The community’s trust and confidence in the institutions of justice are reinforced when lawyers act, and are seen to act, ethically.
Judicial officers
This trust is further reinforced as the next generation of judicial officers are selected from among the legal profession’s most dedicated and ethical practitioners. These judicial officers themselves must meet the same high standard of conduct before their courts.
I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the long history of engagement and mutual respect between the courts of PNG and Australia.
For a number of years the Federal Court of Australia and the National and Supreme Courts of PNG have had a memorandum of understanding under which two Federal Court judges travel regularly to PNG to hear matters and share their experience with other members of the PNG judiciary.
The measures and practices contribute to the development of an ethical and professional legal fraternity.
Instilling these standards also requires the legal profession to effectively regulate its members. The legal profession must make clear the standards that apply to members’ conduct and ensure that failure to adhere to these standards is appropriately addressed.
Law societies must be able to carry out their mandate and be seen to do so effectively and regularly. This reinforces the community’s confidence in the legal profession and encourages people to trust the advice and skill of their legal representatives.
Legal institutions
A well trained and qualified legal profession is essential to the operation and maintenance of the rule of law and the institutions needed to maintain it.
With this in mind I thank PNG’s Department of Justice and Attorney General and look forward to that department – on behalf of PNG – taking on the role of chair of the Pacific Islands Law Officers’ Network for 2025.
This leadership role demonstrates the commitment of PNG to the rule of law and the value it places on the standard of its legal profession.
Next year, with PNG as its chair, PILON will host its Annual Meeting in PNG and celebrate PNG’s regional leadership role and its 50th anniversary of independence. This is a fitting combination.
Along with an ethical and highly trained legal profession, law and justice institutions are the mechanism that translate the principles of the rule of law into practical reality.
These institutions include the judiciary, legislature and law enforcement and each of these institutions is supported by the legal profession.
The legal profession populates the ranks of the judiciary and legal policy experts. These legal professionals in turn support the conduct of those who are not lawyers, such as the constabulary, and provide guidance to them on legal issues.
Strong institutions ensure that the rule of law is able to withstand the pressures inherent in the exercise of power.
Institutional strength is measured, in part, in the legitimacy those institutions hold in the eyes of the community, and amongst those who seek to wield power and influence.
When institutions are weak, or there is a perception of corruption, public trust erodes and people are more likely to resort to extra-legal means to resolve disputes. Therefore, institutions function best when they are transparent and accountable.
It is notable that Australia and PNG have both recently created national anti-corruption commissions.
In Australia, the National Anti-Corruption Commission commenced on 1 July 2023.
PNG’s commitment to accountability is embodied in the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Our countries are aligned in recognising the importance of anti-corruption efforts to upholding the rule of law.
Together, Australia and PNG work closely in the law and justice sector to strengthen the institutions that support the rule of law.
I am proud of the longstanding institutional partnership between the Australian Attorney-General’s Department and the PNG Department of Justice and Attorney-General.
This partnership focusses on sharing experiences in legal and policy reform and collaborating on shared policy areas of interest.
My department and I highly value this relationship for its role in developing a shared understanding of the law and justice challenges that our countries face and ways in which we can respond to those challenges.
Together, our two departments are strengthened by our improved ability to develop laws and implement policy that is tailored to the needs of our respective communities.
Role of policing and other institutions
This close collaboration is shared across the law and justice sector.
The Australian Federal Police work closely with the Royal PNG Constabulary through the PNG-Australia Policing Partnership. This partnership includes support for operational policing as well as training and other key areas of police development, such as forensics.
In other areas of the law and justice sector Australia works closely with PNG. Australia stands with PNG in your dedication to law and justice.
I am pleased that Australia is investing $100 million in the enhanced Australia-PNG Law and Justice Partnership (APLJ), focussed on PNG’s priorities and critical needs, such as strengthening law and justice institutions, including village courts, and addressing family and sexual violence.
These efforts enable Australia and PNG to work together on PNG’s priorities to strengthen the institutions of law and justice.
This in turn underpins the rule of law and enable PNG to achieve its aspirations of development and growth.
Together with a well-educated, ethical and expert legal profession, robust institutions will lead to a stronger PNG, a safer PNG and a more prosperous PNG.
Conclusion
As legal professionals, we are not mere technicians applying the law.
We are stewards of the rule of law, and we have a duty to ensure that the rule of law prevails against all challenges.
It has been my pleasure to address you today.
I wish you all the best in this important endeavour, for your clients and your communities.
Thank you.
ENDS
