Forensic Evidence

The Hon. C. BONAROS (14:55): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Attorney a question about forensic evidence pertaining to sexual assault cases involving rape kits in our state.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: Last week, The Australian published an article revealing extensive wait times for the handing of forensic evidence to police by Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services. The article reported that the Queensland government's DNA laboratory faces an enormous backlog as hundreds of sexual assault victims have been waiting for more than a year to have forensic evidence from their attacks tested.

Queensland police are currently waiting for results from 1,058 rape kits, 420 of which were submitted more than a year ago. Almost half of those cases have not yet even undergone initial biological examination, which includes screening for sperm and reporting those results to police. A 2022 inquiry found serious failures amounting to grave maladministration involving dishonesty at the Queensland state-run forensics DNA laboratory. My questions to the Attorney are:

1. What are the current wait times in our state to receive the results of testing from rape kits and other forensic evidence?

2. Are there any concerns about delays in South Australia?

3. What is the government doing to ensure that we do not end up in a situation like Queensland, which ultimately results in a delay of justice?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:57): I thank the honourable member for her questions. In relation to wait times in the types of cases she has outlined that involve sexual assault or rape forensic samples, I am not aware of anything that has wait times in the way the honourable member says, but I am happy to ask to see if there are statistics that are kept that can be compared against Queensland.

We don't have some of the problems that we have seen with forensic science in Queensland. Certainly, I know in terms of DNA evidence there have been some substantial problems, and I think that stems from the handling of DNA evidence in Queensland historically. There have been very big reviews and necessarily a lot of changes in Queensland forensic science. I have spent some time at Forensic Science SA at Divett Place, Adelaide, with members of Forensic Science SA. Much of the work that Forensic Science does in South Australia is not just nationally but world regarded.

We are keen to try to ensure as much as we can that we don't see some of the problems that we have seen in other jurisdictions plague South Australia, and that is why in recent budgets there have been some hundreds of millions of dollars invested in Forensic Science SA. I think we are in the final stages of design before building a brand new Forensic Science SA facility in this state.