Justice Suspended: The Collapse of Regional Court Sittings in Western Australia
From 1 June, most regional and remote courts in WA will not sit. The cause is police being unable to guarantee court security and custodial services across many regional locations. The consequences fall on some of the country's most vulnerable communities — and on the practitioners who serve them.
A public notice issued in recent weeks has confirmed that criminal court sittings across large parts of Western Australia will be vacated from 1 June 2026, remaining suspended until at least 28 August. The cause is the inability of police to guarantee court security and custodial services in many regional and remote locations.
Without police to provide security, supervise people in custody, and transport detainees, courts across much of the state have determined that sittings cannot safely proceed. The disruption falls primarily on the Magistrates Court and Children's Court, with some District Court circuits also paused. The restrictions are concentrated in the communities furthest from Perth — the places where the gap between legal need and legal access is already widest.
What the closures mean in practice
From 1 June, court sittings in affected areas will be limited to regional centres where security can be maintained. A number of larger hubs — including Broome, Kununurra, Geraldton, and Kalgoorlie — are reported to be continuing to operate. Many other regional court registries face temporary closure or significantly reduced sittings. Some matters may proceed by video link where infrastructure allows, but the reliability of that option is itself in question.
"In some police stations, police won't even push a button to enable an accused person to appear by video link before a court." — Peter Collins, Aboriginal Legal Service WA
Peter Collins, Director of the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia, has been direct about what that means on the ground. In communities such as Fitzroy Crossing and Bidyadanga, he says, courts had little option but to close. But the deeper problem — the inability to sustain police-provided court security and custodial services in regional communities — has been building for years.
The Nationals WA have demanded urgent action from the Cook Labor Government, describing the situation as "a serious breakdown in access to justice for regional Western Australians" and raising questions about how the system reached this point without apparent warning to practitioners or communities.
The impact on Aboriginal communities
The closures will fall hardest on Aboriginal people, who are disproportionately represented in regional criminal matters. ALSWA has stated that WA Police will arrest and charge close to 50,000 Aboriginal people in 2026 — a figure the service cites to challenge the claim that police lack resources for regional court security, even as it withdraws from that function.
For those communities, justice delayed is not a procedural inconvenience. It means people held on remand for longer, matters heard further from family and country, and the informal accountability that comes from community-based court processes disappearing for three months. Children's Court matters — often involving the most time-sensitive welfare determinations — will be particularly affected.
The Aboriginal Legal Service has not accepted the framing that this is simply a resourcing problem within policing. The question being raised is a structural one: why, in a state with one of the strongest resource economies in the world, has court security in regional communities been left entirely to a police force that is now declining to perform it?
The position of practitioners
For lawyers practising in or travelling to regional WA, the practical consequences are immediate. Matters will need to be rescheduled, clients will need to be advised, and the already significant logistical burden of regional criminal practice will intensify. Practitioners who rely on circuit appearances for a substantial part of their work face both financial disruption and the challenge of maintaining relationships with clients who may be held in custody far from their home community.
There are also professional obligations in play. A practitioner unable to appear for a client due to court closure is in a different position from one who simply cannot attend — but the distinction offers little comfort when a matter is not being heard at all. The profession will need to work through what duty of care looks like when the infrastructure for justice is the thing that has failed.
Practice Direction 1 of 2026 The Magistrates Court of Western Australia has published Practice Direction 1 of 2026 dealing with interim arrangements for circuit court sittings. Practitioners with affected matters should contact the relevant registry directly to confirm the status of their specific proceedings.
A systemic question
The immediate crisis will, presumably, be resolved — whether by negotiation between the courts and WA Police, emergency government funding, or the passage of time until 28 August. But the underlying question it surfaces is not going away: what is the minimum infrastructure the state owes its most remote communities to make justice not merely theoretically available, but practically accessible?
The answer the current situation implies — that access to justice can be suspended for three months due to a breakdown in the arrangements between state agencies responsible for delivering it — is one the legal profession should be unwilling to accept as a precedent.
Share your experience
The Profession is seeking to hear from practitioners working in or with regional WA communities — whether you practise on circuit, work with the Aboriginal Legal Service, or advise clients whose matters are now in limbo. We want to understand what this looks like from inside the work, and to give voice to those most directly affected. Contact us directly at editorial@theprofession.au for a confidential discussion.
