Underfunding blamed for Qld Parole Board backlog
A huge backlog is impacting on parole decisions in Queensland, leading to a spike in the number of judicial reviews filed and a lack of resources is being blamed.
Police & Courts
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The number of judicial reviews being filed because overwhelming levels of backlog are impacting parole decisions is “skyrocketing” with hundreds submitted in just three months.
The figures have been slammed by the Opposition and a legal expert who’ve claimed the state government’s underfunding is to blame for the Queensland Parole Board’s backlog.
It can be revealed 286 judicial review applications were filed in court by prisoners with legal representation between July 1 and September 30 this year.
It’s not known how many of these were lodged because the board had failed to make a parole decision within the statutory time frame, however legal heavyweight Terry O’Gorman said it would be the “overwhelming majority”.
The Courier-Mail revealed earlier this year that of the 325 filed during 2020-21 – 90 per cent were because the board had failed to make a decision.
Opposition attorney-general spokesman Tim Nicholls said the Prisoners’ Legal Service estimated the costs of delays were almost $4m per month which was “shocking”.
“ … and that doesn’t even include the costs of the judicial reviews that are now routinely being made in the Supreme Court,” he said.
“With reports of almost 300 judicial reviews filed in the Supreme Court between 1 July and 30 September alone this year, how much more will taxpayers be forking out due to Labor incompetence?”
Mr O’Gorman, the Civil Liberties Council vice president, said the growing number of reviews was caused by the government failing to provide sufficient resources.
“When the government wants to move on a crisis they do, but this government like all governments take the view that prisoners are out of sight out of mind and they’re dragging the chain,” he said.
But a spokesman for Police Minister Mark Ryan said parole was not an automatic entitlement.
“Because of the government’s strong laws and the relentless efforts of police there are now more offenders spending longer in detention more often,” he said.
“This, in addition to an increase in exceptional circumstances parole applications arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, has led to an increase in the number of parole applications.”
He said the government was continuing to provide the board “substantial support”.
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