COURT STATISTICS

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:59): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the minister representing the Attorney-General a question about court sentencing statistics reporting.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: Last year I made a series of 10 freedom of information requests to the Courts Administration Authority inquiring as to the penalties imposed for a range of criminal offences, including the date of each sentence, the penalty and the judicial officer imposing the sentence. No personal identifying information was requested regarding the offender. On 30 July I received a letter from the authority stating that the documents would be refused on the basis that the documents are exempt pursuant to schedule 1, section 11 of the act. That is, it was purported that the documents related to the judicial function of the court.

I formally requested an internal review of the refusal on the basis that I was seeking statistical information only and not information regarding judicial function. Again, I was advised that the internal review denied the request. I then referred the matter to the State Ombudsman. At the outset I note that I had a very similar freedom of information request answered and statistics provided in the past.

I made an almost identical request for sentencing data previously, which was answered and revealed that many magistrates were imposing vastly different sentences for the same offences. During one particular year, for example, one magistrate imprisoned 90 offenders convicted of theft, while another who heard a similar number of cases imprisoned only one offender. The data set was large to smooth out any statistical anomalies. My questions are:

1. Is the Attorney-General aware that the only detailed data available through OCSAR dates to 2006 and therefore is terribly out of date?

2. How on earth can members of parliament (or members of the public for that matter) be expected to know whether penalty outcomes imposed by our courts match the legislature's expectations if data is not available and cannot be obtained?

3. Will the Attorney-General provide me with the information I have sought by freedom of information and inquire into the sentencing disparity that the previously obtained data appears to show?

4. On what basis can such vitally important information be withheld from public scrutiny?

The Hon. P. HOLLOWAY (Minister for Mineral Resources Development, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister Assisting the Premier in Public Sector Management) (15:01): I will refer the honourable member's question to the Attorney and bring back a response.