Daniel Andrews says he will fully implement most of the 18 recommendations of a review into suppression orders

Daniel Andrews says he will fully implement at least 17 of the 18 recommendations of a review into suppression orders.

Victoria accounts for more than half of all suppression orders imposed in Australia.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he will fully implement at least 17 of the 18 recommendations of an independent review into suppression orders imposed by the state’s judiciary in the current term of government.

Retired judge Frank Vincent handed down the findings of his a year-long review of Victoria’s 2013 Open Courts Act in September 2017.

At the time he called into question the function and efficacy of suppression orders in an internet age, highlighting the fact that Victoria accounts for more than half of all suppression orders imposed in Australia.

The Andrews government is yet to implement any of Justice Vincent’s recommendations despite announcing its support for 17 of the 18 in March.

Mr Andrews did not rule out supporting the 18th recommendation — which involves providing the Public Interest Monitor with extra funding and resources to make submissions and ask questions of judges imposing suppression orders — but said it required further work and consideration.

“We have begun the process of doing that work and we will continue to implement against the commitments that we’ve made,” Mr Andrews said.

“This was commissioned by us, it’ll be delivered by us, but it will take some time.

“No one should underestimate our absolute resolve to deliver on the findings, the recommendations that were made by former Justice Vincent, accepted by our government, work began in the last term and it will be completed in this term.

“I think that gives you a very clear sense of whether I think there’s an appropriate balance or whether we need to make some changes.”

Justice Vincent found that of the 1594 orders made between 2014 and 2016, 22 per cent were blanket bans that either failed to say what was being suppressed or simply stated that the “whole or any part of the proceeding” could be not be reported.

No grounds were given for the suppression in a further 12 per cent of cases.

When Jill Meagher’s killer and rapist Adrian Ernest Bayley was facing court over three other rapes the case was suppressed, ostensibly to ensure a jury could not be prejudiced by knowledge of his previous crimes.

In the years leading up to his 2012 sentencing for drug trafficking offences, the media was unable to report that police had dropped a murder charge against Melbourne underworld figure Tony Mokbel over the 2003 killing of Michael Marshall, and acquitted him in 2009 of the 2004 murder of gangland figure Lewis Moran.