Commissioner for Victims' Rights

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:32): Like many locally and internationally, I was astounded by the Attorney-General's recent announcement concerning current Commissioner for Victims' Rights, Michael O'Connell, who we now know will not be reappointed. Since 2006, Mr O'Connell has diligently served and advocated for victims of crime and willingly made himself available to parliamentarians of all political persuasions, proving to be a most apolitical advocate.

Mr O'Connell began his police career in the late 1970s, soon developing an interest in helping those hurt by crime. From 1980 to 1984, he worked with female police officers, tackling domestic violence and child protection. In the mid-1980s, while studying a business diploma, he completed victimology, later writing the curriculum on victimology for TAFE SA's justice studies, teaching that subject for about a decade. While a police officer, in 1989 Mr O'Connell was appointed the inaugural victim impact statement coordinator convincing the commissioner of police and the then attorney-general, the Hon. Chris Sumner, to allow victims to write their own statements. Next, he advocated for victims to have the right to read them in court.

He also helped craft several leading victim-oriented policies for the police and was on the committee organising the 1994 International Symposium on Victimology. When seconded from the police, Mr O'Connell became the lead researcher and writer for the then government's review on victims of crime, producing the blueprint for reforms on victims' rights and victim assistance, including state-funded victim compensation. In 2001, the Liberal government invited the Governor to appoint him as the state's first victims of crime coordinator. He was reappointed in 2004, in that era co-designing the model for regional services for victims of crime and chairing an inquiry into services for Aboriginal people as victims.

The Labor government's justice for victims policy in 2006 was greatly influenced by Mr O'Connell's advocacy on victims' participatory rights, including community impact statements and playing a key role in forging the law on the Commissioner for Victims' Rights, a position he strongly argued should be independent of the government of the day. That year, the Governor appointed Mr O'Connell as our first state and, in fact, Australia's first Commissioner for Victims' Rights.

Once the commissioner's functions were grounded on law, he set about advancing victims' participatory rights. He maintained that victims should not be outsiders or bystanders in the criminal justice system. Prosecutors have revised decisions on charges and victims have been represented by legal counsel in criminal proceedings pre and post conviction. The criminal bar has applauded these reforms made without unduly impacting on the rights of defendants. Judges and magistrates have, through their decisions, acknowledged that his advocacy has been helpful. Several hundred victims have benefited from the evolution—or perhaps revolution—that has happened.

As commissioner, his focus was on victims' needs, introducing victim notification letters to ensure victims are told when criminal proceedings begin. This program is the only one of its type in Australia and possibly the world. Working with police officers in the Far North of our state, he devised better ways to inform Aboriginal people living on the APY lands of their rights as victims. He successfully argued for funding to establish a statewide network of workers to assist victims of sexual assault, to ensure the survival of the Road Trauma Support Team and the Homicide Victims' Support Group. He also introduced the homicide crime scene clean-up program, which has significantly alleviated the burden on those bereaved by homicide.

Furthermore, at Parole Board hearings he represents those affected by murder, a reform he drove when advising parliamentarians on the reform of parole laws. Remaining loyal to South Australians, he witnessed our citizens becoming victims of crime overseas. He fought for the rights for victims of terrorism, and victims of the Bali bombings were paid compensation after Mr O'Connell's advocacy. Most recently, he collaborated with consular staff, London police and private business to repatriate the body of a young person who was murdered during a terrorist incident. He has organised the repatriation of other victims of homicide, ensuring that loved ones are treated with respect, dignity and compassion. Most public was the repatriation of Khandalyce Pearce and her mother, Karlie.

Last year, he pursued better treatment of Australians as victims of terrorism. Earlier this year, the COAG tasked the National Victims of Crime Working Group, which Mr O'Connell helped establish in 2008 and has co-chaired since 2010, to draft good practice guidelines to assist victims of terrorism. Unfortunately, he will not complete this task. He will, however, continue as a member of the international network of services for victims of terrorism.

The soon to be retired commissioner is an international expert and an acknowledged scholar on victims' rights and victim assistance. He has helped train police in many countries and lectured internationally on the plight of victims of sexual assault, child abuse and terrorism, among other topics. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has drawn on his experience and expertise and currently is co-writing the final draft of his new handbook on justice for victims. He is a founding member of Victim Support Asia and cooperates with Victim Support Europe.

Throughout his distinguished career, Mr O'Connell has never forgotten that victims are people in crisis. He has remained on call 24/7, even while working away or on private leave. He has assisted a countless number of women and children escaping domestic violence or dealing with the effects of that violence and has helped drive the previous government's child protection reforms. Victims of cyber crimes have also benefited from his interventions, with police now using information on scams and e-frauds that he produced. He holds many qualifications in the field of victimology and was awarded an Australia Police Medal and last year became a Member of the Order of Australia.

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