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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-08-30 Daily Xml
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Director of Public Prosecutions Office

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON (15:16): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before addressing a question to the Attorney-General regarding the DPP.

Leave granted.

The Hon. L.A. HENDERSON: Yesterday's tabled report makes it clear that South Australia's prosecutors are operating under unacceptable, unreasonable and unsustainable levels of pressure and stress. Employees reported that the office is dysfunctional, reactive and broken and that the director's frequent and fleeting thought bubbles to reform the office appear to go nowhere.

The report has called the office an organisation ill-equipped to manage the realities of the modern day. The report states that employees at the DPP had a heightened sense of vigilance, fatigue and sense of hopelessness, difficulty concentrating, being easily distracted, a racing heart and crying unexpectedly and more frequently, and that managers showed a seeming disregard for wellbeing. This report clearly demonstrates serious problems for the state's DPP and the director. Therefore, my questions are:

1. When was the Attorney-General made aware of the serious problems in the DPP?

2. Did the Attorney-General have any prior knowledge that staff wellbeing was being disregarded in the DPP?

3. Does the Attorney-General believe that Mr Hinton's actions in managing the DPP, its culture and its staff have been successful and appropriate?

4. Given this report, does the Attorney-General believe that the DPP is a safe workplace?

5. If the Attorney-General does not believe the DPP is a safe workplace, what has he done to rectify the situation?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:18): I thank the honourable member for her question. I think nearly all those questions can be answered by this report being commissioned—that is why the report was commissioned. I regularly meet with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions about significant matters that are ongoing, but also about the office. Certainly, when it was suggested that this report be undertaken, I was in favour of it and I am supportive of the director implementing the recommendations that have come from that report.

While I am on my feet, I have just received information and I would like to correct the record very slightly in response to a question earlier from the Hon. Nicola Centofanti about budget matters. It was the first budget and the Mid-Year Budget Review that provided significant extra resources to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

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