DPP Victoria Engel SC: “Without a properly funded criminal justice system, access to justice for Canberrans is severely compromised.” Photo: Michelle Kroll.
The ACT’s Director of Public Prosecutions has described the decade of under-funding for her office as “unacceptable” as the government has acknowledged it’s “falling short” on providing the justice system with adequate resources.
Shadow-Attorney General Jeremy Hanson called on the ACT Government to provide the Office of the DPP and Legal Aid ACT with enough money to do their jobs to provide equal and fair justice in Canberra.
“We’ve run out of time [on this], to be frank,” he said.
“Given that we’ve heard these warnings [about funding issues] since at least 2017 … the time for delay is over and the time for action is now.”
His motion was in response to comments made by DPP Victoria Engel SC during her appearance at the budget estimates hearings, where she said a lack of “long-term, significant funding” was compromising the needs of people in the justice system, especially those who are vulnerable.
Ms Engel told Region Mr Hanson’s motion – which was fully supported by the Assembly on Tuesday (16 September) – needed to be met with “immediate action”.
“Without a properly funded criminal justice system, access to justice for Canberrans is severely compromised,” she said.
“Every day in the ACT, the community rely on the DPP to fairly and efficiently seek justice on their behalf. ACT Policing lay charges, but the DPP is the vehicle through which justice in the Court system is either achieved or not achieved.”
Ms Engel described the increase of sexual and violence charges being laid by ACT Policing, the increased capabilities of the court and the increased complexity of criminal prosecution, had created a “perfect storm” that was impacting on her office’s ability to “provide the basic level of service Canberrans deserve”.
“At a time when victims of family and sexual violence are rightly demanding better access to justice and protection, not providing the DPP with resources to deliver a base level of service is unacceptable,” she said.
“The DPP is one of the few agencies in this sector which relies exclusively on ACT Government funding, with no access to Federal funding, and one of the few agencies that cannot stem the incoming flow of its work.
“The current situation is simply not sustainable.”
Legal Aid ACT CEO Dr John Boersig added during estimates that his office’s funding was “flatlining” in the face of increased demand.
Dr Boersig told Region that Canberra was now dealing with a range of “big city problems”, both from high population growth and the cost-of-living impact on disadvantaged and vulnerable people.
“It is crucial that the justice sector is funded to meet the increased demand in our courts,” he said.
“More people need legal assistance than ever before. What this means is that the ‘justice gap’, between the very poor who get legal aid and the people on low incomes who do not get legal aid but cannot afford private legal representation, is getting larger.
“Unrepresented people, who are unfamiliar with the legal system, take much more time to have their matters determined in courts, and people who receive good legal advice make better decisions.”
He said it was also a reasonable expectation from governments that the justice sector providers would “innovate, modernise” and provide solutions that would optimise the additional funding.
Attorney-General Tara Cheyne acknowledged the arguments to provide both sides of the justice system with more money, but said there wasn’t an easy answer.
“We’d like to provide more funding … [the recent budget] has sought to put us on a course of correcting the ongoing vertical imbalance that we have here,” she said.
“[All Attorneys-General know] that we’re still falling short of the resourcing that is required.”
But she took issue with what she described as the “extraordinary cognitive dissidence” of the Opposition and crossbench to call for more money while recognising the budget was in a “very difficult state”.
“You can’t do both,” Ms Cheyne said.
“It is, in some ways, quite reckless to be peddling this narrative when, what we would hope from a mature Parliament, is that we’d all be working together on an appropriate response that seeks to address some of the fiscal realities that we’re facing.”
The ACT Government has provided the DPP with resources to help shape its next budget submission, along with wider corporate functions.
Ms Cheyne said she wanted to use this term of government to work on reducing reliance on using the Confiscated Assets Trust to provide funding solutions.
“It’s not a sustainable funding stream … it is problematic to keep drawing on a fund that we have no guarantee of what’s going to be in it in future years,” she said.
“We will be doing as much as we can in partnership with our justice sector to effectively right an imbalance that has been in place for several decades.”
Ms Engel welcomed the support of the motion and looked forward to change in this space.
“In order to both protect the staff of the DPP and the reputation and trust that the community have in the DPP, urgent funding is necessary to rectify a long-standing deficit.”
