Reception for Attendees at the Annual Conference of Courts’ Registrars, Brisbane

Kaye and I are delighted to host Queensland Courts’ Registrars here at Government House on the occasion of your annual get together, and I particularly note with enthusiasm that the representation this evening is State-wide. Tonight’s event originated from an Offer I made to Julie Steel in 2014 when I was having difficulty realizing I would one day cease being Chief Justice.

It is wonderful to see familiar faces and wonderful to see faces that are not familiar. Some of the faces are there in the staff photo which Julie Steel presented on my departure in July twenty-fourteen, and which sits daily in the little “Chief Justice enclave” in my Governor’s Study.

As I know ever so well, and acknowledge with such gratitude tonight, our courts and court systems would grind to a halt without the registrars in this room tonight, and their staff.

And yet the substantial effort that keeps courts moving goes largely unnoticed by the casual observer. But I suppose that is as it should be. The people rightly expect the courts to operate predictably and without fuss. 

The role of a court registrar is demanding. 

Registrars deal directly with the many faces of our legal system: the community, the judiciary and the legal fraternity.

They are administrators, resource managers, educators, and also perform quasi-judicial roles.

They are “wranglers” par excellence, helping to ensure that the right people arrive in the right courtroom at the right time with the right resources.

As managers and guardians of court documents and records, they are the creators and keepers of the courts’ corporate memory. 

They are an essential part of the human face of our court system.  

Their job requires, at a minimum, initiative, dedication, energy, thoroughness, patience and a wide range of people skills.

I take this opportunity, as Governor, to thank you all most sincerely for the wonderful, invaluable work that you do in serving our courts system with such professionalism and dedication.

Part of that professionalism is, of course, the drive to improve knowledge, practices and processes. 

The meeting you are attending this week is an important way of achieving this goal. It is a chance to exchange knowledge, experience, and no doubt an anecdote or two about a role that is never the same from one day to the next.

I wish you all an enjoyable, successful and productive conference.

For now, however, please accept our thanks along with some well-deserved Government House hospitality.

Thank you.