Reserved Judgement Timeliness Benchmarks

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:31): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking questions of the Attorney-General regarding reserved judgement timeliness benchmarks in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: The Courts Administration Authority of South Australia has published the timeliness benchmarks for reserved judgements that have been in place since May 2020. For instance, I note that 85 per cent of judgements in the Supreme Court are expected to be delivered within four months, the District Court aims to deliver all judgements within six months and for the Magistrates Court 100 per cent of civil and criminal judgements are to be delivered within six months of the reserved judgement, unless an extension of time has been provided by the Chief Magistrate specifically. Recently, however, District Court Judge Paul Muscat has stated:

It's not infrequent now that somebody who gets committed to this court is not sentenced for somewhere between six and 12 months... That never used to be the case.

Noting that the District Court has a six-month timeline for all judgements, my questions of the Attorney are:

1. Is the Attorney-General aware of the percentage of judgements that are not made within expected time frames in South Australian courts?

2. Is the Attorney-General satisfied with the timelines of reserved judgements being handed down and, if not, has he met with the representatives of the Courts Administration Authority and indeed of each of the courts to discuss these concerns?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:32): I thank the honourable member for his question and his very strong interest and regular questions and commentary on justice in South Australia. I regularly meet with the heads of jurisdictions from the relevant judiciaries—the Magistrates Court, the District Court, the Supreme Court, as well as the Youth Court—and have meetings with the Coroner, as well as SACAT and SAET.

I know that there are a range of factors that can influence sometimes how long it takes for judgements to be handed down. The complexity of matters before the judges is a major factor in that and we have seen, particularly in the criminal jurisdiction, some exceptionally complicated matters, particularly in our superior courts, with trials that have involved more than half a dozen defendants, such as Operation Ironside—matters that are finding their way to the court that involve very complicated issues of evidence.

Another complicating factor sometimes that I am aware of from my discussions with the various jurisdictions is in relation to shortages in various workforce areas. We are seeing a very tight labour market in nearly every area in Australia at the moment and that includes psychologists, who are often called upon to provide reports in areas like sentencing where there is, like there is in so many areas, a shortage of workers in some cases, which can occasionally lead to longer than desired time frames in getting reports to complete processes in providing sentencing, for instance.

While I know that our courts do a quite remarkable job in terms of endeavouring to meet time frames, and regularly do meet those, I am aware from my discussions that, due to increasing complexity of matters and some shortages in areas that can inform particularly criminal justice sentencing processes, there can be delays.