From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey. It's Thursday, October tenth. The Powerful Education Union wants members to boycott teaching reforms, including phonics and explicit instruction on topics like maths and reading. That's because it says the federal government's sixteen billion dollar funding offer to the States isn't enough. Former Labor Senator Fatima Payman, who left the party after objecting to its stance on Gaza, has launched
her own party, Australia's Voice. It has no policies yet, but some Indigenous leaders are objecting to her use of the word voice as they mark the anniversary of the Voice to Parliament referendum defeat. Judges should be trauma informed when dealing with Indigenous and African offenders and taken to account the effects of colonialism, slavery and racism. That's just part of a new guidebook to help judges become more like therapists. It's been distributed to judicial officers today. What
therapeutic jurisprudence is all about. Congratulations, you've been appointed a judge. Now, which kind of judge are you going to be?
The hanging judge, your persistent dedication to a life of chrime is an abomination before God and Man, and therefore sentence you to hang by the neck until you're dead. And may the Lord have mercy on your soul.
The bring your toothbrush, judge.
The word remorse a deep regret coming from a sense of guilt for past wrongs.
That's not you, the judge, Judy, just a second. I ask questions, You answer the questions. Do you understand that amar Australian judges have a new option, the therapy judge Therapeutic Jurisprudence or TJ. According to a new guide distributed to judges published by the New South Wales Judicial Commission. This is what that means.
TJ emphasizes processes that encourage self determination for offenders to avoid increasing resistance and potential resentment of the judicial process. Judicial officers are expected to have a positive impact on the people appearing before them and their communities, with the court as a possible facilitator of healing.
So it was written by a researcher. She's a lawyer and a psychologist. Her name is Ronda Waterworth and it was backed by the New South Wales Judicial watchdog, the Judicial Commission, and further endorsed by the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration, which is the peak judges body in Australia.
Ellie Dudley is the Australian's Legal affairs correspond and she's breaking this story today. The guide explicitly states its techniques are not designed for use in more serious criminal matters and are not designed to excuse offender behavior nor argue for judicial leniency.
Therapeutic jurisprudence and solution focused judging did not promote leniency. Indeed, offenders being held to account and receiving a just outcome, including imprisonment when warranted, is therapeutic in itself because it tells offenders that actions have consequences.
In fact, the Guide suggests sending someone to jail can actually be useful.
A sentence for incarceration can be used to stabilize a person's life, their mental state, to give a period of space and time to reorganize their entourage, and to give the defendant time to obtain support in a stable environment.
One of the newer ideas coming through the law is that judges are themselves subject to wars. What's called vicarious trauma. That is distress and upset caused by being exposed to the details of offending and suffering. That, as well as the obvious stress of such big jobs, can lead to shortness of temper. Judges are, of course human, but sadly Australian courts are not televised, so we rarely get to share with you all the little moments of snappy, cranky
judges we see from the press benchers. There are some exceptions, like this twenty twenty SmackDown by Victorian judge Elizabeth Gainer.
Let me tell you, gentlemen, what this court has seen time after time with young men like you.
You get out of jail.
And you're in the big wide world. You've never had a job, never had a stable relationship, no relationships with the children that you have. You'll end up drug rattled, lonely old men.
American courts, however, are a cornucopia of judges losing it on TV. I agree with the family. I hope you die in prison as well. You know, if this was adapt.
Penalty state you begin to chair. This court is so sick and tired of seeing adult room and abused children.
There's a big rebalancing happening across the law, isn't there in the way that judges are considered. Now every few months I read a report about a senior judge talking to other judges about how to manage the workload, to manage the stress, and acknowledgment that it's pretty tough work at times.
The New South Wales Judicial Commission released a report recently showing that an overwhelming amount of judges need to be tested for PTSD because the work that they're dealing with
every single day is so incredibly traumatic. And what we see all through this report is an acknowledgment that the things that go on in court are incredibly traumatic, and also the fact that offenders all victims as well, bring really complex backgrounds and perhaps intergenerational trauma of vicarious trauma or whatever it is to court and they need to be treated in certain ways.
That's the very serious and earnest part of this report. It is also pretty funny.
There are parts of it that seem to be a little bit peculiar.
Tell me about the butterfly technique.
So the butterfly technique is something that is included in the report with graphics just in case you don't understand it fully where an offender, perhaps if they're experiencing stress at the time, crosses their arms across their chest and
pats on their shoulders. There's also parts of the report that talk about the wellbeing of judges, so things like going for long walks, exercising more, having special herbal teas, that sort of thing in order to calm themselves down or to help resolve any vicarious trauma that they may experience based off of their experience in the courtroom.
Yeah, there's a suggestion that judges might like an alkaline drink such as apple side of vinegar we're mixed with water to make themselves feel better, essential oils to help with alertness, calming music in the waiting room, and having a fiddle toy available for those speaking. This is the point where this tips over into being ridiculous, isn't it.
I couldn't possibly say, but what I will say is that I have not yet seen any judges implement these sort of techniques in court, you know, from your Justice Michael Lees to your Chief Justice Stephen Gegler, and it would be very interesting if they did. In the middle of a chorum. It's bringing these therapeutic techniques into the courtroom, which does seem to be an incredibly twenty twenty four attitude and not something we would have seen a decade ago.
Indigenous Australians are over represented in the justice system and in prisons, of course, and every judge in Australia who handles criminal matters is trained in dealing with Indigenous people
in their particular sensitivities. The report suggests, though, that this is not just about acknowledging that an offender before the court might have had a difficult childhood, might have substance abuse problems, might be the victim of violence themselves, but it's also going back to what their family and in fact their entire culture might have.
Experienced, particularly when it comes to Aboriginal defendants. There's a massive chunk of the report dedicated to the Stolen Generation when the impact that could have on Indigenous defendants. I also talks about settling colonialism and the impact that could have Indigenous defendants and the way that has been passed down from generation to generation amongst Aboriginal communities.
Coming up, Why Islam is singled out as a helpful tool for judges. Ellie Dudley's coverage of legal affairs is unrivaled. If you're a judge or a lawyer, you should be subscribing to The Australian for her exclusives and all our analysis and commentary on matters of the law. Check us out at the Australian dot com dot au. When sentencing Muslim offenders, the guide says judges should be mindful of intergenerational trauma experienced by the family members of refugees who
fled persecution experienced torture. But the report says there are upsides too.
Muslim culture provides several elements that can strongly enhance resiliency in young offenders, offering a framework that promotes psychological well being, moral development and social support.
There's a broad reference to Asian defendants. What does it say about them?
It talks about Asian shame, So this idea that Asian defendants could will heavily fear embarrassment and that could impact the way that they appear in court. It says that this may make it difficult for an offender to participate fully because they could become emotionally overwhelmed due to this embarrassment.
In terms of African defendants, Elie there's of course an acknowledgment that Africa is a pretty big place and there are a huge number of different, very different cultures from that continent, some of whom have made their way to Australia in the form of local communities. Why should judges, according to this report, have a particular sensitivity around Africa defendants.
It goes back to that thing that we're talking about intergenerational trauma. So it makes reference to the slave trade when the impact that the slave trade could have on African defendants, it talks about that being a massive potential sensitivity, and similarly, the ongoing impacts of colonization could have an
impact on African defendants. But at the same time, when they've got a sensitivity, they also have a strength, so they say that strong family bonds within African communities could act as a potential strength for an African defendant.
You're in court rooms with judges all the time, it's easy to make jokes about the kind of woke instruction that they're getting from the Juditial Commission, for example, in this instance, it's your sense that by and large they are sensible, sober decision makers, or do you see judges straying away from black letter law.
I think it's divided. So I think that while you would have some judges who are straying into judicial activism and more interested in quite progressive of the law, I think that you have a very strong basi of a judiciary that is very keen on not straying and ultimately achieving justice and achieving that in a very straight and narrow way.
Ellie Dudley is The Australian's Legal affairs correspondent. Anthony Albanezi will meet Chinese Premier Lie Chung at the Asian Summit in Vientian Today. The PM says he'll be working on stabilizing relations with China amid boiling tensions over the South China Sea. You can read all a live reporting from Asian Today at the Australian dot com dot a U