Justice system is suffering because of underfunding, DPP warns

Victims and accused people are suffering long delays in their wait for justice because of insufficient resources, the state’s top prosecutor says.

Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates SC says underfunding of his office is hurting the state’s justice system. Picture: RICHARD JUPE

THE state’s top prosecutor says his office is underfunded and cannot keep up with the growing backlog of criminal cases without more resources.

Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates SC said victims were being traumatised by long delays in hearing criminal cases, accused people were waiting too long for justice and prosecutors were suffering high levels of stress as a result of being overworked.

He said the quality of justice in Tasmania was suffering because of the shortage of funding.

In his 2018-19 annual report tabled in State Parliament today, Mr Coates pointed out that committal hearings are up 50 per cent in recent years, bail applications are up 400 per cent and sexual assault and family violence matters are up 250 per cent.

“The effect of this increased workload and the resulting delays … is significant for victims, accused, witnesses, the quality of justice and also my staff,” he said.

“The increased criminal backlog and committals cannot be adequately addressed without considerable recurrent ongoing funding, being provided to the office,” he said in his report.

“This is demonstrated by the fact the budget of the office has decreased in real terms by 12 per cent since 2012-13 despite the increase in workload.

“Further, this does not take into account the increase in complexity of committals due to the increase in the percentage of committals involving sexual assault.”

Mr Coates said the backlog of criminal cases in the state had grown from 382 in 2016-17, to 443 in 2017-18 to 627 last financial year.

The result of the growing delays was witnesses’ memories of events faded or they became unco-operative, hard to find or lost interest in testifying.

Victims suffered additional trauma and the number of people being discharged was rising, he said.

Mr Coates said the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court had offered to hold more trials, but there weren’t enough prosecutors to help.

“I informed him I did not have sufficient resources to meet such a request,” Mr Coates said.