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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 4 Hansard (22 April) . . Page.. 1255 ..

2) Expenditure was monitored following the first quarterly report but the extent of the cost increase was still emerging and the commitments which continued the increase in costs into the second quarter had to be maintained.

3) The costs increases related primarily to several complex and lengthy cases which required engagement of external Counsel. Costs of that kind cannot always be anticipated but the need to engage external Counsel is expected to reduce once these current cases are completed

4) The escalating costs are due to extraordinary matters beyond the control of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Government. Whilst Directors of Public Prosecutions in larger jurisdictions have a scale of operations which provides capacity to manage large and complex proceedings, the ACT does not have the same benefits of scale. This necessitates large and complex proceedings being managed outside normal operations.