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| Part of the existing and soon to be replaced court complex in Shepparton. |
The present need is blatant, but unfolding needs are not
near so obvious.
Administering justice within the walls of what exists in
High St is, from all reports, staggeringly difficult, but the tightening of
world realties will make it impossible, even after digging deeply into our
pockets to build a “sheer concrete and glass” court complex.
The collision of world events, which will be upon us within
a decade or so, will demand, even on a regional basis, decentralization rather
than the energy-intensive centralization of institutions, even something as
seemingly remote from energy as our courts.
Resources upon which we now habitually depend and undergird
our modern lives are finite and yet we continue to reinforce institutions and
create processes whose usefulness and durability depend, and hinges upon the false
belief of the infinitude of those resources.
Even within just decades, a brief time compared to the more
than 70 years of what exists has served our community, the movement of people
around even the Goulburn Valley will become increasingly difficult, and expensive.
Rather than investing in and building one monolithic
structure we need a totally decentralized legal system in which justice can be
administered in all the smaller centres that make up Greater Shepparton.
Many argue, from a position supported by indisputable facts
that the world has already passed that moment from which oil resources
inevitably decline to become fearfully expensive and so the province of the
wealthy.
The burning of fossil fuels, deforestation and the breeding
of animals for human consumption, have damaged our atmosphere and extensively
changed weather patterns to such a degree that we will have to live where we
live.
Meaning that travel, even in a limited sense within the
Goulburn Valley, will be more difficult, expensive and time consuming, suggesting
the administration of justice should be dispersed in our smaller communities rather
than a centralized, shimmering concrete and glass complex in Shepparton.
Ideas driving Shepparton’s new court complex are from the dying
energy-rich carbon era and so rather than further embedding those, we should be
working toward and building an institutional and structural system that will
endure in an energy-poor post carbon society.
Electricity produced by renewable energy will ultimately be
abundant, but only if we stand together and disable the intent of Australia’s
present decision makers and so a mosaic of court houses linked by the National
Broadband Network will provide local justice for local people, in local
institutions staffed by local people.
It means more jobs for more people in more places throughout
Greater Shepparton and builds resilience in more communities wrestling with the
dilemma of the post-carbon era.
