DPP Exposes Hulls’ Justice Failures

Tuesday 28 October 2008 – Last night’s speech by Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Jeremy Rapke QC, has blown the whistle on how bad the Victorian justice system has become under the Brumby Government, Shadow Attorney-General Robert Clark said today.

“Violent crime is rising, it’s taking longer to bring criminals to justice and many offenders are receiving appallingly lenient sentences,” Mr Clark said.

As  the DPP has highlighted, court waiting lists have reached all-time highs. This causes enormous stress to victims, witnesses, accused persons and their families as they wait years for their cases to be heard. It also makes it harder to achieve justice when the case does reach court, as witnesses’ memories have faded and evidence has deteriorated.

“Rob Hulls can’t try to pass the buck for these problems to lawyers or to the courts. It is his responsibility as Attorney-General to propose the laws that set the framework within which the courts and legal profession operates,” Mr Clark said.

“It is also the Attorney-General and the Department of Justice that largely control the administration of Victoria’s courts, and have been responsible for massive cost blowouts and delays in technology upgrades such as the CJEP which was supposed to reduce court waiting lists and speed up the justice system.

“It’s vital that the government acts urgently on the DPP’s recommendation to give courts more control over how cases are prepared and managed, and the time taken to get cases to court.”

“The government also needs to act on the DPP’s recommendations to improve the use of technology and the arrangements for listing cases for trial.
“We also need justice put back into sentencing. The government must ensure the sentences handed down in our courts reflect the sentencing policy decided by Parliament on behalf of the community,” Mr Clark said.

Currently, Sentencing Advisory Council figures show the most common sentence for rape is five years jail with a three year non-parole period, and the most common sentence for armed robbery is two years with a one year non-parole period.

Even when offenders are sentenced to community-based orders, the amount of community service imposed often seems woefully inadequate. Recently, three G20 rioters were sentenced to just 50 hours of community service – equivalent to less than a month’s worth of weekend work.