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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-06-05 Daily Xml
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Legal Profession, Harassment

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:35): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing questions to the Attorney-General regarding South Australia's judiciary.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK: A recent Equal Opportunity Commission report revealed that judges had perpetrated 22 per cent of bullying, 14 per cent of discrimination and 9 per cent of sexual harassment that took place in South Australia's courts for a period reported between 2021 and 2023. Further to this revelation, the commissioner has called for the overhaul of our state's judicial and magistrate appointment process, referring to it as, 'one of the least transparent in the nation'.

The equal opportunity commissioner is of the opinion that any judicial candidate must be subject to the scrutiny of an independent panel and proposes legislative amendments to enable the continuation of investigations into misconduct regardless of the resignation of a judge or magistrate. My questions for the Attorney are:

1. Does he agree that these numbers are unacceptable?

2. What actions has he taken so far?

3. How many times has he met with the equal opportunity commissioner to discuss these recommendations?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (14:36): I thank the honourable member for her questions. In relation to the second question, I meet very regularly with the equal opportunity commissioner in face-to-face meetings and have exceptionally regular contact, either by phone or in the building that we both work in, about matters in relation to this. I want to place on the record my appreciation for the work the Equal Opportunity Commission has done in relation to this report and a number of other reports looking at discrimination, harassment, and particularly the exceptionally successful We're Equal campaign that has rolled out across not-for-profits, businesses and government departments promoting equality.

In relation specifically to questions that the honourable member raised, I know that the respectful behaviours group, as I think it's called, within the judiciary, within the Courts Administration Authority, has been reinstigated, and funding has been provided from the Attorney-General's Department to do this. It is something that we take seriously and we take the recommendations seriously.

The honourable member mentioned in her question a recommendation that was in the last report about the ability for investigations into members of the judiciary to continue post resignation. As recently as, I think, the week before last or the week before that, discussions were held within my department about how you would give effect to that, and I have answered questions in here before about some of the intricacies and some of the competing principles in the ability to have investigations that go beyond a Judicial Conduct Commission investigation.

It is a very complex area, because of course once someone is no longer a member of a judiciary it is not clear how the Judicial Conduct Commissioner would actually have the jurisdiction to keep investigating, and if there was the ability to keep going if there would ever be any incentive whatsoever for someone to resign and take accountability for their actions. It is an issue that is under active consideration by government.

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