Media Release — The Victorian Bar to deliver Advocacy Training as part of Papua New Guinea and Australia: Law and Justice Partnership

This year’s program from 19-23 June was expanded to include three streams:

• Legal Training Institute (LTI) – Intensive Advocacy Skills Workshop for 150 students
• Government Lawyers stream – Intensive Advocacy Skills Workshop – for 20 lawyers from the Office of the Solicitor General
• Judicial stream – Judicial Forum which comprised approximately 20 members of the PNG Judiciary.

Support for the Program as part of the PNG Australia Law and Justice Partnership was provided by the Australian Government via the Australian High Commission, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Justice Services and Stability for Development Program (JSS4D). 

The 14 members of the Victorian Bar and Judiciary, all volunteers, facilitated the Program.  The team was led by Peter O’Farrell, Team Leader and member of the Victorian Bar International Advocacy Training Committee and included the Honourable Chris Maxwell AC, the Honourable Peter Riordan, Judicial Registrar, Rosalind Avis, Carolyn Sparke KC, Tim Walker KC, Kathleen Foley SC, Maya Rozner, Jim Doherty, Shivani Pillai, Sarah Porritt, Susan Gatford, Andrew Woods, and Nick Goodenough.

Team Leader Peter O’Farrell said “The team travelling to PNG was a very experienced group of barristers and judges with many years of combined advocacy training experience.  They were all volunteers. It is an important part of the Victorian Bar’s work in facilitating access to justice and the rule of law by ensuring that those providing legal representation have the best training and mentoring to develop their legal skills. The Program is a key component of our relationship with the PNG legal profession.”

President of the Victorian Bar, Sam Hay KC, said “We were delighted to work with the PNG Australia Law and Justice Partnership on delivering training to the next generation of lawyers in PNG, and I thank the barristers and judicial members involved.”

The LTI advocacy workshop is a compulsory part of admission to practice in PNG and provides an important opportunity for the Australian and PNG lawyers to share knowledge and experience and strengthen ties between the profession in both countries.

This year’s workshops included intensive lectures, moots and feedback sessions and was held at the Legal Training Institute (LTI) of Papua New Guinea, between 19 and 23 June 2023. 

At the LTI, 150 graduate lawyers from PNG participated – the largest ever cohort that the Victorian Bar has been invited to work with. 

Angelyn Paranda, the Acting Director of the LTI said “Our students were very fortunate to be able to participate in this Workshop – the Victorian Bar program is an excellent way for our students to learn, understand then practice their court room skills. Our students were very excited about the Workshop.”

For the first time, the Government Lawyers stream was introduced to the Program and this year it was conducted at the Office of the Solicitor General. Twenty lawyers from the Office of the Solicitor General participated in the Workshop.

PNG Solicitor General Tauvasa Tanuvasa said “We are very appreciative of the relationship between PNG and the Victorian Bar. The advanced program for the lawyers here at the Office of the Solicitor General focused upon Medical Negligence cases and our lawyers will be able to draw upon the skills learnt during the Program in their day-to-day practices.” Mr Tanuvasa himself is an Alumni of the Victorian Bar Readers Course and has been a central figure in the ongoing relationship between PNG and the Victorian Bar.

Maya Rozner from the Victorian Bar who has worked closely with the Office of the Solicitor General to put together the Government Lawyers Program said “It was a pleasure to present a specialised program to assist the Solicitor General’s Office in the development of court room skills and advocacy.  It is such an important component of the legal system.”

Also, for the first time this year, a Judicial Forum was be held between members of the PNG and Australian Judiciary.  

The Forum was opened by Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea, the Honourable Sir Gibbs Salika. The Honourable Chris Maxwell AC, who recently retired as the President of the Victorian Court of Appeal said “The Judicial Forum was an excellent opportunity for members of the judiciary from PNG and Australia to share experiences and learnings in relation to the issues faced by the judiciary in our respective countries. We worked in partnership with the Centre for Judicial Excellence to develop the week-long forum and there were so many mutual learnings from the Forum together with a further strengthening of the relationship between the Australian and PNG judiciary.

More background:
Can be found in the Report on the Workshop and Ongoing Development 2022 - Link to 2022 Report