Ministerial Statement

Justice Reform

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (14:01): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Earlier this year, I had the distinction of being Attorney-General, minister for police and minister for corrections at the same time, albeit for a brief time. This created a situation not often seen in our state, where one minister was responsible not only for the police that arrest an offender, but also for those who prosecute, the judge, and those who supervise them in prison.

During this period, I was struck by the often disjointed approach taken when reform is conducted within silos and is not part of an end-to-end strategy. That is why I asked the Premier to consider creating a new portfolio of justice reform which would have oversight of all of the areas of the justice system with a mandate for reform across the board.

This government has a proud record of reform in our justice system. Crime is down drastically and court outcomes are more in line with community expectations. However, our criminal justice system faces immediate challenges. There is no denying that. Our remand rate is the highest in the country and, in spite of a high number of judicial officers for our size, we have the longest waiting times for trials in the country.

These are symptoms of a system that is in need of cultural and structural reform. The government has previously established the Criminal Justice Reform Council, which includes representatives from all parts of the criminal justice system. I now chair this council as Minister for Justice Reform. All members of the council have agreed to pursue reform during this term.

I want a justice system that is more accessible, citizen-focused, efficient and fair. An accessible system is not only easy to use and navigate, it is also low cost. A citizen-focused system is one that works for people; it does not expect them to work for it. An efficient system maximises the use of the state's resources consistent with appropriate benchmarks. A fair system is consistent with impartiality and is timely.

We intend to move the culture and practices of our criminal justice system closer to these goals. The first step is to make sure we can assess the quality of the system at important parts of the justice process. As citizens we need to have confidence that the system is working not only effectively but efficiently.

To that end, I want to see the regular publication of statistics in place by the end of this year. This will allow the system to be transparently inspected by all, and I want to get feedback on how we are going in order to guide more targeted change to the system. Following this, I intend to seek input from those who work and use the system to guide development of new procedures and policies. The outcome of this process is to be a number of reform bills to be introduced into the parliament, probably early next year.

Reform is not something that only new governments do, nor is it something that existing governments should be afraid of. Further reform of our criminal justice system is something that government intends to continue over the next term.