Shandee’s Legacy: New DNA lab chief Mick Fuller vows responsibility to fix crisis at DNA lab
NEW EPISODE | Former NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller vows responsibility for ‘every aspect’ of Queensland's DNA lab rebuild, but will need to avoid mistakes of the past if it is to survive.
The former top cop now in charge of Queensland’s DNA lab has vowed to take full ownership of its performance, as he insists his lack of a scientific background won’t impede his ability to turn around its fortunes.
“I’m not a scientist, right? The danger is me pretending that I’m a scientist,” Mick Fuller said, speaking on The Australian’s Shandee’s Legacy podcast.
“I need to understand the principle of how it works better every day, and I do. I invest, I ask questions, I’m writing stuff down.
“But if you think about what Forensic Science Queensland should stand for – and that is protecting the victims of Queensland, it is working with Queensland police, Queensland’s DPP, Queensland’s justice system – they’re all things that I dealt with every day as not just the commissioner of police but as a police officer.”
As NSW Police Force commissioner from 2017 to 2022, Mr Fuller ran an organisation with a $4.2bn budget, 21,000 staff and eight million “customers” across the state.
The organisation he now leads, FSQ, may only be a fraction of the size with a $37.2m annual budget and 188 staff but the challenges are immense.
Two royal commission-style public inquiries in 2022 and 2023 were followed this year by two separate and damning independent reports that found ongoing problems of sample contamination, lab errors and unreliable DNA results.
All of it preceded Mr Fuller’s appointment in September, leaving him to inherit backlogs of many tens of thousands of new and historical samples awaiting testing, with the patience of senior judges, defence lawyers, prosecutors, police and victims of crime being sorely tested.
The task of addressing those backlogs will be aided, with the support of Attorney-General Deb Frecklington, by the processing of thousands of samples in the US over two years as part of a $50m outsourcing program.
But it will take time for meaningful change, and if the lab’s operations are called into doubt again, it could be forced to close its doors and outsource all testing, Mr Fuller believes.
“The consequences of getting this wrong is unbelievably huge in the justice system,” he said.
“There are lots of smart people there who want to work hard and who want to do the right thing, who I would say ultimately were let down by leadership.
“I’ve given them a promise that I’ve made a commitment to stay and help them be a world-class lab, which it should be.”
He added: “I need to own every aspect of it, if I’m to get any sense of trust back in the labs, not just from victims but from the community, from the media, from courts, from the cops and the DPP. But it needs to have proper governance in place. The structure needs to recognise the task at hand. Training needs to be done mandatorily.
“Policy documents need to be updated every year. Quality assurance has to become one of the most important things that’s embedded in everything that we do.”
Faced with a crisis that seemed to have no end, the attorney-general took drastic action to be able to appoint Mr Fuller.
Laws were changed to remove a direction that the FSQ director must have at least 10 years’ experience in forensic services and a relevant university qualification.
The minister also gained the power to sack the director for any reason or none, and to issue orders the director must follow unless they concern an individual case.
With the country watching and the pressure on, Mr Fuller is confident he can avoid the pitfalls of the past where pressure to clear backlogs led to shortcuts being taken at the expense of solving crimes.
Some staff will inevitably leave, others will be drawn to the challenge.
“People talk about changing culture like you change your meal order. It’s a big deal, it takes time and … planning and implementation over years to really change a culture; unfortunately it also involves changing people,” he said. “I think there will be people in time who won’t want to come on the journey of transparency and accountability. And others who will flourish in that environment.
“It’s an exciting time to be coming to FSQ and you could be on the ground and part of one of the biggest restructures and positive changes in Queensland government history.”
Vicki Blackburn, still waiting for justice for the stabbing murder of her daughter Shandee in Mackay in 2013, is reserving judgment. She believes Mr Fuller will need the independent advice of forensic biologist Kirsty Wright, whom the previous government and lab management declined to involve in rebuilding the lab, despite her courage in calling out its flaws.
Dr Wright and former FBI expert Bruce Budowle, the authors of the two 2025 independent reports into the lab, have both been engaged to assist the lab and Mr Fuller during the next 12 months.
Mr Fuller said his background was “very regimented, it’s structure, it’s accountability, it’s reporting, it’s statistics, it is data”.
The lab “doesn’t have any of that” and he wants to use technology to pull data that will help pinpoint DNA testing problems, whether from equipment malfunctioning or human error, as they are occurring.
“The cost of getting that wrong is the next victim of a sexual assault or potentially a homicide,” he said.
