00:00They tend to take up a lot of court time. Judges are able to deal with people of all
00:11kinds, but it can't help but have an impact, particularly if there are actual threats,
00:17which there are from time to time, and it can have a very significant adverse impact
00:24on court staff having to deal with people who can become very agitated by the fact that
00:32their view of what the law is does not accord with what the law actually is.
00:38And what are the broader, I guess, concerns or dangers of these kinds of views developing
00:44and growing and gaining traction?
00:46Well, as with any other institution of government, the courts depend for their function on trust
00:56and public confidence. The fact that that proportion of people might be growing should be a concern
01:04to anyone in the community because it ultimately impacts upon the safety and the stability of
01:11our society.
01:13What can be done broadly to win back that trust?
01:18It's incredibly important that we foster public confidence and public trust in all our institutions.
01:25So it's important that the institutions themselves respect one another and that the different
01:32roles of different institutions within our society are properly understood.
01:38And are you concerned about how that looks in WA at the moment?
01:43In a world with a lot of social media content where ideas like this can disseminate very
01:50rapidly and very broadly, it's important for us to be vigilant. So I still like to think
01:58that in Western Australia and in Australia there is good community understanding and acceptance
02:05of both of both the courts and the other arms of government. But we can never be complacent
02:11about that because we see in other parts of the world when respect for the rule of law breaks
02:18down very quickly, everything else breaks down as well. So remain confident but vigilant that
02:25these are challenges that these are challenges that our community faces.
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