Funding shortfall families’ anguish at coroner court logjam

Grieving families are facing long waits for answers to some of the state’s worst tragedies because funding shortfalls are leading to lengthy court delays.

FAMILIES grieving from some of the state’s worst tragedies are facing heartbreaking waits for answers as a funding shortfalls lead to lengthy Coroner’s Court delays.

The Courier-Mail can reveal that more than eight months after public hearings into Dreamworld’s Thunder River Rapids ride disaster which left four tourists dead, the inquest has been bogged down by lengthy delays meaning there will likely be no answers until next year.

The Coroner’s Office continues to battle backlogs on high-profile cases including the 1973 Whiskey Au Go Go nightclub firebombing in Brisbane, the 1989 murder of Toowoomba teen Annette Mason, the 2014 Barrett Centre deaths and the Ravenshoe Café explosion.

The state’s peak law body says the Coroner’s Court is being “strangled” by a lack of funding and has called on the Queensland Government to allocate more cash urgently.

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In the latest indictment on Queensland’s sluggish coronial system, The Courier-Mail has learned the counsel assisting the coroner in the Dreamworld case is yet to make final submissions.

Sources say that may not happen for weeks and lawyers for parties including the victims’ families will then have to respond.

It means Coroner James McDougall may not hand down his findings until next year, more than three years after the October 2016 tragedy which claimed the lives of Cindy Low, Kate Goodchild, her brother Luke Dorsett and his partner Roozbeh Araghi.

Floral tributes outside Dreamworld following the October 2016 Thunder River Rapids ride tragedy. Picture: Nigel Hallett

The setback will prolong the anguish for the victims’ families and also delay possible prosecutions and recommendations to improve theme park safety.

A damning Queensland Audit Office report handed down late last year found the state’s coronial system was ‘under stress’, with ‘excessive delays’ and a declining clearance rate leading to a growing backlog of coronial investigations.

Auditor-General Brendan Worrall found that coronial cases in Queensland that were 24 months or older had blown out from 7 per cent in 2011-12 to 16 per cent 2017-18.

“Excessive delays and a declining clearance rate reflect a coronial system that is underperforming,” he found. Public hearings in the Dreamworld inquest finished last December and Mr McDougall had been expected to hand down his findings and recommendations earlier this year.

A timeline set out closing submissions from counsel assisting the Coroner, veteran barrister Ken Fleming QC, by the end of February this year with responses from barristers representing the families and other parties due in March.

Mr Fleming took on a job as the head of the NT’s anti-corruption watchdog just before the inquest hearings began but at the time said he was confident he could perform both roles.

A senior member of Mr Fleming’s Dreamworld legal team is believed to have been battling illness in recent months.

Families of the victims, the State Government and Dreamworld are anxiously awaiting the inquest findings and recommendations, which could include prosecutions of theme park bosses and consultants under workplace health and safety laws.

Dreamworld Coroner James McDougall. Picture: Adam Head

The inquest findings could also lead to multimillion-dollar lawsuits against owners Ardent Leisure.

A lawyer for one of the families said his clients were growing frustrated at the delays. “We would have liked it to have been resolved by now,” he said. “We don’t want to be critical but it’s pretty frustrating.”

Queensland Law Society president Bill Potts said the Coroner’s Office worked ‘very hard’ but was being ‘strangled’ by low funding and resources. He said grieving families of sudden death victims were being forced to wait too long for findings and recommendations which helped prevent other tragedies.

“We believe it’s a matter of urgency for the State Government to start funding the Coroner’s Office properly to allow them to … deliver their findings and recommendations in a timely manner,” he said.

Dreamworld victims (clockwise from top left) Kate Goodchild, Luke Dorsett, Roozi Araghi, and Cindy Low. Picture: Supplied

A spokesman for Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath said the State Government had provided $258,000 in extra funding to help finalise the Dreamworld inquest.

She said implementing the recommendations of the Auditor-General’s report into coronial services was ‘well underway’, with an extra $3.9 million allocated to the system over the next four years.

“Most significantly this includes the allocation of funding to establish a second coronial registrar team up until 31 December 2020 to triage all apparent natural cause deaths reported by police,” she said.

“This will reduce immediate demand pressures across agencies and ensure more timely resolution of these cases.”