Page 3260 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 23 August 2017
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costs. The funding will assist the office of the DPP to keep pace with demand and respond to the needs of the court, the police and other investigative agencies and the criminal justice sector more broadly.
This funding builds on previous investment in the services of the ODPP. In the 2016-17 ACT budget, the DPP received funding of $1.363 million over four years through the safer families funding package to strengthen criminal justice responses to the alleged perpetrators of family violence. In the 2014-15 budget, the government provided $1.158 million over four years to establish a work safety prosecutions unit.
It is the case that the government is working with the DPP, and it has supported an independent review of the DPP’s resources. Mr Hanson’s motion makes suggestions about how the DPP should be resourced for senior staff and how it should make budget submissions. Questions about how the DPP should be funded are being considered in detail as part of the review. Rather than jump at particular thoughts, this government is committed to working on this matter strategically and holistically.
Accordingly, the government will continue to work closely with the DPP to consider its future funding in light of the recommendations of the review and the funding of the justice system more broadly. This independent review, which will soon be considered by government, will assist in informing future decisions in relation to the DPP resourcing and future budget submission processes.
The amendments that I will be moving today accurately reflect the funding that this government has provided, as well as the consultation it has undertaken with the DPP. They also recognise that central to any decision about funding for the DPP, or indeed funding for any part of our justice system, is an understanding and an appreciation of the system as a whole.
This government will keep working with the courts and with the legal profession, including our prosecutors, to build a more transparent, timely and accessible justice system. We will absolutely commit to continue working closely with the DPP to consider its future funding in light of the review and in light of the justice system more broadly. Following the government’s consideration of the review, I will be pleased to provide the Assembly with an update by the last sitting day of this calendar year.
I move:
Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:
“(1) notes:
(a) the recommendations of the Select Committee on Estimates 2016-2017 regarding funding of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP);
(b) a recurrent increase in base funding was provided to DPP of $3.028 million over four years in the 2017-18 Budget to fund the additional resources relating to the retrial of Mr David Eastman, plus a new Grade 4 Prosecutor;
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