1,000 signatures reached
To: The Parliament of Victoria
Without Interpreters, There is No Justice
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Without Interpreters, There is No Justice – Petition to the Parliament of Victoria
Translators and Interpreters Australia, a collective within Professionals Australia, calls on:
Court Services Victoria: To restore the previous engagement terms for court interpreters in Victorian courts and Tribunals, with half-day or full-day rates.
The Attorney-General of Victoria: To direct the adoption, funding, and implementation of the JCDI Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals (RNS), in full, within Victorian Courts.
The Government of Victoria: To resume consultations towards procurement reforms for the language services sector to mandate higher standards in professionalism and quality.
Court Services Victoria: To restore the previous engagement terms for court interpreters in Victorian courts and Tribunals, with half-day or full-day rates.
The Attorney-General of Victoria: To direct the adoption, funding, and implementation of the JCDI Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals (RNS), in full, within Victorian Courts.
The Government of Victoria: To resume consultations towards procurement reforms for the language services sector to mandate higher standards in professionalism and quality.
Why is this important?
Interpreters are vital to ensuring access to justice, healthcare, and essential services.
Interpreters facilitate communication between people with limited English proficiency, Deaf and hard of hearing and the public sector professionals they interact with in important, or even critical, life situations.
Court Services Victoria and Language Service Providers (LSPs) are cutting interpreters' pay and reducing their hours, adding stress to an already demanding job.
Court Services Victoria and Language Service Providers (LSPs) are cutting interpreters' pay and reducing their hours, adding stress to an already demanding job.
Under the RNS, interpreters are considered officers of the court. Currently, the conditions faced by interpreters are well below any standard applicable to an officer of a court.
Recent changes undermine long-standing fee structures, leaving interpreters with a further degradation of their pay and conditions – pay and conditions that are not commensurate with the role, responsibilities and expectations quite rightly, of the professionals and community members who rely on them.
The Victorian Government initiated reforms to language services in 2018 which have yet to be completed. This has left the sector exposed to downward price pressure from Government agencies leading to aggressive competition among LSPs at the expense of the workforce. This has a direct impact on outcomes in justice, law enforcement, healthcare and all service provision generally.
The Victorian Government’s failure to address procurement reform has led to further erosion of interpreters’ pay and conditions in the form of:
- Reduced minimum engagements;
- Covert changes to fee calculation, resulting in lower rates of pay;
- No increases to recommended rates in 6+ years;
- Reduced pay for working remotely despite its increased complexity.
For the justice sector and the community, this means:
- The language services sector is becoming unsustainable because:
- Experienced interpreters are leaving the sector.
- Graduates are not entering the profession due to the poor conditions.
- Failures can occur in the administration of justice due to:
- Communities being disadvantaged by an absence of procedural fairness in the justice system.
- A system that discriminates.
- Government and their agencies will be in breach of their own multicultural, access and equity and inclusion policies.
- All community services will be jeopardised similarly to the legal sector.
- The greater financial consequence of system failures will be borne by the taxpayer.
Judicial Council on Diversity and Inclusion Recommended National Standards (RNS)
The RNS were produced by a specialist committee appointed by the former JCCD (now the Judicial Council on Diversity and Inclusion - JCDI) comprising Interpreting and Legal Experts, with its first edition published in 2017 and the second in 2022. The RNS are endorsed by the Council of Chief Justices of Australia. Their purpose was to develop frameworks, best practice advice, and resources to support procedural fairness and equality of treatment for all court users throughout Australia.
The Implementation of the RNS is not only vital to promoting and ensuring compliance with the rules of procedural fairness. The RNS are concurrently intended to ensure that the interpreting profession throughout Australia develops to the benefit of the administration of justice generally.
The RNS are not universally adopted in Victorian Courts. This is troubling, given the diversity of Victoria’s community, we would expect that Victoria should be leading the way. Regrettably, this is not the case.
Join Us in Demanding Fairness for Interpreters and the Communities that they serve.
All interpreters, translators, legal professionals, healthcare workers, and professionals who rely on interpreters at work, please sign this petition!
Let’s show the Victorian Government that we stand together for justice, fair treatment, and the right to fair pay and conditions.
Get involved: Contact [email protected] for more information or to find out how to further support the campaign.
Petition
To The Legislative Council of Victoria:
We, the undersigned residents of Victoria draw to the attention of the Legislative Council, the ongoing degradation of conditions and standards in Victorian Courts.
We note the reduced terms of engagement for court interpreters by Court Services Victoria and the stalled procurement reform for this sector by the Victorian Government and the failure to universally adopt the Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals in Victorian Courts.
Petition
To The Legislative Council of Victoria:
We, the undersigned residents of Victoria draw to the attention of the Legislative Council, the ongoing degradation of conditions and standards in Victorian Courts.
We note the reduced terms of engagement for court interpreters by Court Services Victoria and the stalled procurement reform for this sector by the Victorian Government and the failure to universally adopt the Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals in Victorian Courts.
We, the undersigned residents of Victoria, therefore, request that the Legislative Council of Victoria call on the Victorian Government to:
- Restore the previous engagement terms for interpreters in Victorian Courts, with half-day or full-day rates.
- Adopt, fund, and implement the JCDI Recommended National Standards for Working with Interpreters in Courts and Tribunals, in full, within Victorian Courts and Tribunals.
- Resume consultations towards procurement reforms for the language services sector to mandate higher standards in professionalism and quality.