Tonight: Bugmy Justice Reports Seminar

26/04/2023

In-person seminar: Wednesday, 26 April 2023

The Bugmy Justice Project creates Bugmy Justice Reports for pre-sentencing and bail hearing matters that provide background information to a court for consideration when sentencing an Aboriginal person.

• Presenters: Judge Peter McGrath SC, Ms Carly Stanley, CEO, Deadly Connections & Dr Thalia Anthony UTS, member of the Bugmy Justice Project Working Group
• Chair: The Honourable Justice Hament Dhanji
• Time: 5.00pm-6.15pm
• When: Wednesday, 26 April 2023
• Venue: In Person attendance only - The NSW Bar Association Common Room, 174 Phillip Street, Sydney
• RSVP: Please click on this link.

Informed by the learnings of Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37; (2013) 249 CLR 571, the Bugmy Justice Reports aim to provide culturally and individually appropriate evidence and suggest available options that use a cultural strengths-based approach to the District and Supreme Courts of NSW. Reports include information about personal, racial, cultural and historical impacts on the lives of Aboriginal people as they appear before the Courts for bail and/or sentencing matters.

There is a need for improved community-based and individual background information in sentencing for First Nations people involved in the justice system. In the decision of Bugmy v The Queen, the High Court considered the issue of sentencing Aboriginal offenders and stated at [41] that if background information was relevant to the offender and sentencing, it was necessary to have 'material tending to establish that background'.

This program is a joint initiative of the NSW Judicial Commission Ngara Yura Committee, The NSW Bar Association First Nations Committee and the Law Society of NSW Indigenous Issues Committee.