WAJA officially launched, successful opening night

The Hon Robert French AC has officially launched the WA Justice Association.

The WAJA Launch was held on Monday 1 March at the UWA Law School. Despite an evening of thunder and rain, approximately 120 students, legal professionals, social justice advocates, academics, WA Police officers, family members and friends attended the event. The event was kindly MC’d by UWA Assistant Professor Kate Offer.

Attendees had the privilege of hearing from the Hon Robert French AC, Sophie Stewart of Social Reinvestment WA and Tom Penglis, who all delivered meaningful speeches. Each guest speaker shared their unique insight and experience with the flaws of the current WA criminal justice system, and addressed the need for meaningful change.

Ms Stewart spoke of her experience in founding Social Reinvestment WA and socially disadvantaged individuals who SRWA seeks to help. ‘Change doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it takes cooperation between different sections of society to enact meaningful change’, she said. SRWA was a key influencer in campaigning for the end of imprisonment of vulnerable people for unpaid fines.

Tom Penglis then spoke of the injustices he saw in his incarceration at Acacia Prison, which formed WAJA’s operational structure. He said:

if prisoners were treated humanely as people who need help to address the underlying causes of their offending behaviours, and were provided the tools and assistance needed to do so, I am confident that the vast majority would reform themselves and live happy, healthy, crime-free lives.

This sentiment was supported by the Hon Robert French AC, who spoke of social injustices highlighted in the final report of The Justice Project, a review conducted by the Law Council of Australia of which The Hon Robert French AC oversaw. When addressing what would create meaningful social change and law reform, he said ‘informed, multi-level advocacy and education, which is persistent and determined, is the only real option’.

Before officially declaring the not-for-profit launched, the former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia joked:

I did cross examine Tom and Julian to some length earlier tonight, such as ‘have you registered; are you incorporated...’, and they appear to be legal. With that reassurance, I am delighted to declare the WA Justice Association launched.

WAJA is grateful for all the support we have received.