Five judges for the price of none

Courts are set to receive a double boost, with two Bills introduced today to expand the role of Community Magistrates and modernise remote participation, says Courts and Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee.

“Too many people are spending too long caught in the court system, and victims should not have to wait a year or more to see a case resolved,” says Mrs McKee.

“The Community Magistrates Legislation Amendment Bill will free up more than five full-time judges by allowing Community Magistrates to deal with more straightforward matters from start to finish.

“Community Magistrates already play an important role in the District Court. Expanding their jurisdiction will make better use of their skills, improve timeliness, and will mean District Court judges can spend more time on the serious and complex cases that need their attention.

“It is a practical, common-sense reform that gets better value out of the court system and helps cases move faster.”

The Community Magistrates Legislation Amendment Bill will enable Community Magistrates to:

take guilty pleas for all cases except those tried in the High Court, such as murder and manslaughter;
preside over trials and determine guilt for offences with a maximum penalty of a fine, community-based sentence, or up to three months’ imprisonment;
order pre-sentencing reports for offences being referred to a District Court judge for sentencing;
make a greater range of bail decisions where the defendant has pleaded guilty before a Community Magistrate; and
make a greater range of administrative decisions, including transferring trials from one District Court to another and hearing unopposed limited driver licence applications.

Budget 2025 provided funding for three additional Community Magistrates and extra training to support them in their work. Judge Moses has also recently been appointed as the first Chief Community Magistrate, providing judicial oversight and recognising the growing importance of Community Magistrates to the courts system.

The Government is also introducing the Courts Remote Participation Bill, which will modernise the law for using remote technology in court cases.

“Remote participation is not appropriate for every hearing, but where it saves time, reduces cost, and avoids unnecessary disruption, the law should enable it,” says Mrs McKee.

“The current framework is outdated. This Bill will replace the Courts (Remote Participation) Act 2010 with a new enabling framework that gives the courts clearer rules and more consistency.

“The Bill will allow new Court Rules to set defaults or presumptions about which events should be held in person and which can be held remotely. This will give greater certainty to defendants, victims, lawyers, judges, court staff, and justice sector agencies.

“Judges and Registrars will still retain discretion to depart from those defaults after considering the criteria in the Act. This is about creating a clearer starting point, not removing judicial judgment.

“These reforms build on the Government’s wider work to improve court performance, including the Judicature (Timeliness) Legislation Amendment Act passed last year, which provided for more judges and updated procedures that were slowing the system down.

“While there’s still more work to do, significant progress has been made in improving timely justice in the District Court. The criminal backlog has seen a 28 percent decrease since February 2024, the equivalent of more than 1,500 fewer victims waiting for justice.

“In the same period, the proportion of cases disposed of within timely justice thresholds has increased from 81% to 85%. More than 58,000 victims have experienced more timely access to justice over that period as a result.”

Notes to editors – Courts Remote Participation Bill

The Ministry of Justice and the Judiciary are working together to develop the Court Rules, which are expected to draw on the default settings in existing judicial protocols for remote participation.
To help people understand how the Bill and Court Rules will work together, a Summary Document on the Court Rules will be made available on the Ministry of Justice website while the Bill is before Select Committee. ...