'It clearly hasn’t worked': Deb Frecklington on why she broke with advice for DNA lab
Deb Frecklington says cultural change trumps scientific expertise in her radical overhaul of Queensland's forensic DNA testing laboratory | NEW EPISODE
Queensland Attorney-General Deb Frecklington says her gamble to put a non-scientist former police commissioner in charge of DNA testing for criminal cases was necessary to drive cultural change.
A year after becoming the state’s top law officer when the Liberal National Party swept to power, Ms Frecklington said she was forced to take a “big stick approach” because previous attempts to reform the state’s DNA lab had not worked.
Sweeping legislative changes brought in by the Attorney-General revoked the lab’s independence and removed a direction that Forensic Science Queensland’s director have at least 10 years’ experience in forensic services and a relevant university qualification.
“We’ve changed the legislation to enable FSQ to have someone at the head of it, in the calibre of former NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller, to get in there and look at the culture of an organisation,” Ms Frecklington told the Shandee’s Story podcast.
“Someone that has been at the pointy end of a justice system and understands that if you can bring these smart, amazing people that work at FSQ along with them, they won’t be set up for failure.”
Two commissions of inquiry into the lab in 2022 and 2023 were followed by two independent reports this year that revealed ongoing sample contamination, malfunctioning equipment and a shortfall in training and expertise among other critical issues.
Former director Linzi Wilson-Wilde resigned in July and was replaced by Mr Fuller in September after the government amended legislation to give Ms Frecklington broad powers to hire and fire the head of the lab.
Labor frontbencher Meaghan Scanlon said at the time that the amendments gave Ms Frecklington “extraordinary discretion” over the lab, and victims needed assurance FSQ’s leadership was “robust and independent and not the subject of political whim”.
Retired judge Walter Sofronoff found in his landmark inquiry report two years ago that the lab must have an “independent and quality-minded scientist at its head, who keeps the scientific integrity of the laboratory and its purpose to serve the criminal justice system squarely in mind”.
Ms Frecklington agreed the appointment of someone without a scientific background was “out there” but said it was justified.
“Ultimately, we have a lab that has a culture problem and we need fresh eyes to have a look at what’s going on, to give us the structures that can work in an efficient and able manner that is expected of a government agency as well,” she said.
She believed an independent advisory board still had an important oversight function and said to “watch this space” for appointments.
Mr Fuller was also being aided by independent advice from forensic biologist Kirsty Wright and former FBI expert Bruce Budowle, who each led separate reviews into the lab that were finalised this year, she said.
Ms Frecklington added of her changes: “It is a big stick approach, isn’t it? But we have to do something. Obviously, the recommendations by Walter Sofronoff were handed down in good faith, but it clearly hasn’t worked. And if it had worked, we wouldn’t be here having a chat about it today; or we’d be talking about the successes of it.”
She said the lab’s dysfunction was “one of the biggest failures of the justice system nationally, if not the world … It is not going to be easy to fix this broken system; we know that and we are not making promises we can’t keep. We’ve got to listen to victims, listen to survivors who have been through this debacle. We owe them a system that works.”
