A female lawyer with the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission has successfully completed a Master’s Program from a leading Australian university this year, boosting legal manpower capacity and expertise of the commission.
Lucy Mathew, 31, was formally welcomed back to office by CLRC management and staff on Friday, 15 May, after undertaking an intensive two year Master’s in Law and Development program at Melbourne University as part of the Australian government Scholarship Awards program which was supported by the Government of PNG.
CLRC Secretary, Dr. Mange Matui, congratulated her, saying he was looking forwarding to working with her as she has a lot to offer to CLRC and the country as far as the core business of reforming laws was concerned.
“It is not what you acquire but it’s what you do with that knowledge and for me that is very important,” he said.
Dr. Matui said the Commission’s commitment to have endorsed and released Mathew to undertake the studies is a testament to its commitment to the existing human resource policy to ensure every staff member is given equal opportunity for studies and trainings. This includes ongoing short term and in house trainings for a professional and productive outcome in their work.
Mathew, who also signed her contract last Friday as a senior legal officer with CLRC, expressed her gratitude to the governments of Australia and PNG for the scholarship program as well as CLRC Commissioners and management, both past and present, and everyone else for their support throughout her time of study.
“It was really a good program because it was relevant to the work we do here in that we look at issues and we make policy and legislative reform proposals to the government,” she said.
The program, which was part theory and coursework, focused on the study of all development issues facing developing nations such as issues on elections, mining development, international loans and financing as well as looking at legislative and policy reforms that address those issues against the background of internal best practice scenarios.
(CLRC Secretary, Dr. Mange Matui, and Lucy Mathew signing her contract)