Law Society Northern Territory (Society) congratulates David Woodroffe on his appointment as the Principal Legal Officer (“PLO”) of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA).

Law Society Northern Territory (Society) supports the Prime Minister’s calls for a royal commission into the abuse of juveniles in the Northern Territory corrections system.

Society president Mr Tass Liveris said, “Whilst the Society welcomes the overwhelming nation-wide response that the 4 Corners expose has provoked, these are not new issues. The Society, amongst other stakeholders, has long been drawing attention to the enormous crisis in juvenile detention in the Northern Territory and been calling for real and immediate action. Unfortunately, these calls have been largely ignored and the result is the shocking and deepening crisis in juvenile detention in the Northern Territory.”

Mr Liveris said, “The government should have closed Don Dale Youth Detention Centre years ago and acted on the16 recommendations of the January 2015 Vita report and reports from successive Children’s Commissioners. However, despite the alarming escalation of juvenile imprisonment rates, especially in the Indigenous community, the government has only ever responded in an ad hoc, band-aid way that has now been shown to have comprehensively failed the community.”

Law Society NT (Society) welcomes the announcement that Sonia Brownhill SC will succeed Michael Grant QC as the Solicitor-General for the Northern Territory.

Ms Brownhill will become the first female Solicitor-General in the history of the Northern Territory. Society President Tass Liveris said, “Ms Brownhill’s appointment is an important one, as it continues the growing trend of local lawyers being appointed to senior and leadership roles in the legal profession and the judiciary, as well as that of high achieving women in the law.”.

Ms Brownhill was appointed Crown Counsel in 2005, where she routinely appeared in the Court of Appeal and the High Court of Australia. In 2011, Ms Brownhill joined the independent Bar, practicing in areas such as property law (including native title and Aboriginal land matters), administrative and public law, town planning, general contract law, negligence and personal injury law. In 2015, she became only the third female to be appointed Senior Counsel in the Northern Territory under the Supreme Court (Senior Counsel) Rules.