the increased emphasis on work safety in the Territory generally will have an obvious flow on effect to my office. I have already been advised by the Work Safety Commissioner to expect a significant increase in referrals to my office. Many of those referrals were already in the pipeline before the increase in resources for Work Safe ACT.
Work safety prosecutions are often complex and of great interest to the community. Tragically, prosecutions often arise when workers are either killed or seriously injured. It is no secret that work safety prosecutions present great challenges to my office. This is because of the complexity of modern work places, the well resourced nature of potential defendants and the incentives for defendants to resist prosecution action. It is also fair to say that Work Safe ACT is still feeling its way as an investigative body. Complex factual scenarios are the norm, and there is often the necessity of calling expert evidence which is likely to be heavily disputed. Given the now uniform legislation adopted in Australia, the approach of other jurisdictions will be highly relevant in the ACT. Indeed the ACT will be measured against the performance of other jurisdictions.
Clearly it will not be possible to increase significantly the numbers of work safety matters prosecuted without a concomitant increase in resources to my Office. I am monitoring the situation closely.
Until recently, this office was the only DPP in Australia which had carriage of summary as well as indictable matters. That is now changed, with the Northern Territory DPP having been instructed by its government to take over summary prosecutions from the police prosecution service in that territory. I expect that as the benefits of an independent and fearless prosecution service in both summary and indictable jurisdictions becomes apparent more jurisdictions will follow the lead of the Northern Territory, and adopt the ACT model. Naturally we are happy to provide advice to our Territorian cousins to assist them in their new task.
With expanding workloads and diminishing resources, the Office is always looking for more efficient ways to do business. One area where this is being achieved is in the area of electronic business, particularly in regards to the service of briefs and the presentation of matters in court. The office is working closely with the Australian Federal Police to ensure that briefs of evidence are transmitted to the office in electronic form – they will be served in electronic form on defendants and ultimately transmitted to court electronically. As well courts are increasingly receptive to the electronic service of documents, submissions and other materials and this is being pursued.
There has been much controversy during the year about delays in the Supreme Court and calls in some quarters for the appointment of a fifth resident judge. I have remained aloof from such matters, which are matters for the government and the Assembly. However it must be observed that if a fifth judge were to be appointed, it would necessarily require the appointment of additional prosecutors to support the additional judicial resources. Every time the criminal courts sit they require a prosecutor to be present. Under present arrangements we only just cover the existing courts – and in some instances that is quite a struggle. We would not be able to support an additional judge unless there were an additional flow through of resources – a fact that should be kept in mind in any debate about the desirability of appointing an additional judge.
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| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS ANNUAL REPORT 2012-2013 | ¦ ix |
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