Dear friends and partners of TLA,
TLA’s Director, Vincenzo Caltabiano has been appointed to the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria. After being formally notified on 18 October, he was sworn in the next day and required to commence in the role immediately. As a consequence, Vincenzo’s resignation and departure from TLA was sudden and unexpected.
Vincenzo’s wealth of legal experience, his profound commitment to social justice and strong communication skills will help him make an important contribution as a magistrate. On behalf of everyone at TLA, we wish him well in this new role.
Vincenzo has made a significant contribution during his time at TLA. Under his leadership, we have made some major changes in the way we work together to improve our services, and to place our clients at the centre of everything we do.
Many of you have worked with Vincenzo on projects to progress TLA’s strategic focus on children, family violence and resilience and wellbeing, including:
- the Children First Report
- the Independent Children’s Lawyer Practice Standards and Guidelines,
- the Client Safety Framework
- Just Healthy Families
- evidence on women and girls with disability who had experienced family and sexual violence to the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability, and
- evidence on the youth justice system to the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government's responses to child sexual abuse in institutional settings.
Vincenzo’s commitment to reconciliation and improving outcomes for First Nations people helped to drive the practical outcomes in our RAP, such as the Rosie Smith Law Scholarship and the establishment of our First Nations Advisory Group.
As an organisation we are focused on achieving our vision that all Tasmanians are safe, respected and have their voices heard. We will continue to do this with collaboration with our clients, partners, and staff, by identifying ways to improve our services and through our strong, evidence-based advocacy work.
As TLA’s Acting Director, I look forward to working with you all as TLA continues to work towards our vision.
Regards,
Kristen Wylie
Acting TLA Director