Ceremony to Commemorate the Opening of Surry Hills Children’s Court
Wed Jan 31 2018Courts
The Surry Hills Children’s Court was opened on Tuesday, 30 January 2018 following a $38 million redevelopment. The ceremony was attended by the Attorney General, the President of the Children’s Court, the Chief Magistrate and the President of the NSW Bar Association, President of the NSW Law Society, the Acting Police Commissioner and other office holders. The Court had previously operated from 1911 until it was replaced by Bidura’s Children’s Court in Glebe in 1983. The Bidura Children’s Court was closed in 2017. The President of the NSW Bar Association, Arthur Moses SC, stated in relation to the opening of the new Children’s Court:
The NSW Bar congratulates the President of the Children’s Court and the Berejiklian Government on the opening of the new facilities which are larger, more technologically advanced and better suited to deal with children. There is no doubt that the redevelopment will increase the Children’s Court’s capacity to conduct specialist hearings involving juvenile offenders. However, the NSW Bar also supports the call by the President of the Children’s Court that there be increased funding to enable the Children’s Court to sit on circuit in country areas so that it’s specialist judicial officers can deal with juvenile offenders in these regions.
