Current projects

• Coercive Control reforms

Coercive control is expected to become an offence relating to abusive behaviour towards current and former intimate partners in mid-2024 following the commencement of the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Coercive Control) Act 2022 (assented to 23/11/2022). The Act followed recommendations of a NSW Parliamentary Joint Select Committee, established in October 2020, that coercive control be criminalised on the basis that current laws do not provide adequate protection for victims.

The Judicial Commission will conduct education sessions for judicial officers and update relevant publications regarding these reforms during 2023.

• International Organization for Judicial Training judicial training principles

The Commission is a member of the International Organization for Judicial Training (IOJT) and participated in the 10th International Conference held in Ottawa in late 2022.

• Cultural diversity online training program published 

The Commission has developed an online training module on cultural diversity for judicial officers, in partnership with other Australian judicial education providers. The training package is divided into the following modules:

1. Cultural awareness
2. Australian multiculturalism
3. Stereotyping, assumptions and prejudices
4. Intercultural misunderstandings
5. Plain English principles
6. Hard-to-understand forms of communication
7. Assessing the need for interpreting assistance
8. Working with interpreters and translators

The training program may be accessed at here or on the Judicial Council on Diversity and Inclusion (JCDI) website. An article about the training program by the then Chair of the JCDI, the Honourable Chief Justice Wayne Martin AC, was published in the June 2017 issue of the Judicial Officers’ Bulletin.