Ms ADDISON (Wendouree) (14:59): I am delighted to be speaking and rising before you today. I am very, very pleased to be here to make a contribution and to support the Justice Legislation Amendment (Trial by Judge Alone and Other Matters) Bill 2022, a bill that supports our government’s response to COVID-19 by ensuring that the justice system continues to function not only safety but effectively during the ongoing pandemic.

I am pleased to have been in the chamber today. I am always pleased to hear the contributions of the member for Melton, the member for Geelong and the member for Buninyong, who was just here with us, and the points that they put forward and their commitment to justice in Victoria. But I have to concur with the member for Mordialloc about the lack of speakers from the opposition on so many bills. I think that when they attack us about transparency and about keeping government to account, that it would be really nice to see more opposition on their feet.

I wish to acknowledge the work of the Attorney-General in the other place and the Minister for Corrections, Minister for Crime Prevention, Minister for Youth Justice and Minister for Victim Support for the important work they are doing in justice and corrections, particularly during the COVID pandemic.

I think it is very important that I acknowledge today and commend the Attorney-General and the Premier on today’s announcement regarding forced adoptions and that a formal apology, a redress scheme and counselling will be provided for women who had their children taken from them under heartbreaking historic forced adoption practices.

I know that you, Acting Speaker, will join with me, as will the member for Yan Yean, in welcoming the more than $4 million in response to last year’s parliamentary inquiry into historical forced adoptions in Victoria, including a plan to design and establish Australia’s first redress scheme for people affected by forced adoption. Importantly, the funding will immediately provide crisis counselling as well as the option of integrated birth certificates which name both an adopted person’s natural parents and their adoptive parents. So I really just thank the chamber for allowing me to acknowledge that on this very significant day for our state of Victoria.

The bill before the house today reintroduces judge-alone criminal trials and special hearings and in doing so will ensure more criminal trials and special hearings can proceed during the COVID-affected period and minimise further disruptions and backlogs in the court system. It is a very well-known, centuries old proverb that says, ‘Justice delayed is little better than justice denied’, and it continues to ring true today.

Importantly, this bill will introduce practical and temporary measures, and I really want to stress the temporary measures and the safeguards, for the next 12 months. The bill also covers a range of other matters, not just trial by judge alone, including the deferral of the commencement date for the de novo summary appeals reform, which allows the courts and other justice stakeholders adequate implementation time to ensure these reforms achieve their intended benefits.

This bill also includes the extension of part 16 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, which will provide certainty for both the inspectors when considering issuing directions or prohibition notices under those provisions and duty holders. I would really like to thank the Minister for Workplace Safety in the other place for the outstanding work that she is doing to make workplaces safer across Victoria and ensuring that workers come home at the end of their shift and that they are not injured physically or mentally in doing their job. The minister is also making great progress in her other portfolio of early childhood, especially in the area of rolling out three-year-old kinder for our littlest learners.

Another matter that is being addressed by the introduction of this bill is the extension of provisions requiring adult accused in custody to attend a summary contested hearing or committal hearing by audiovisual link by default. This measure will reduce the need to transfer accused persons to court and for them then to complete transfer quarantine upon their return to prison. So it is a lot less disruptive for people who are on remand; they can stay within the prison and not actually have to go into those quarantine things. As chair of WCSAC, the Women’s Correctional Services Advisory Committee, I know how disruptive things can be, so keeping things stable in prisons is so important, and I am glad the bill is addressing that.

The final matter being addressed by this bill is extending provisions under the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005, and this will continue allowing attendance at a youth justice unit or reporting to occur by audiovisual link or audio link. So once again, we are not moving people around the state during the pandemic if we do not have to and not making people go into quarantine who should not have to, so I think they are important considerations.

When we are talking about this bill, we need to ask: what is the context of it? Why are we introducing this bill now? And the reason for that is that in April 2020 our government introduced reforms aimed at ensuring the justice system could respond effectively to the challenges that COVID-19 posed. Even thinking a year ago, there were so many uncertainties, and that is why we did it then. This included the introduction of judge-alone trials and special hearings. Importantly, these reforms were time limited and were to operate only, effectively, until April 2021. It was hoped that by now, March 2022, the specific COVID-19-related provisions would no longer be required due to high levels of community vaccination and continuing public health measures.

However, very sadly for so many of us the impact of COVID continues, including the omicron variant, which my family succumbed to just last month. It continues to impact our whole state, particularly our schools, our health services and our legal system. Unfortunately whilst we have removed nearly all pandemic restrictions and we are opening up across the state, COVID disruptions will continue for some time, impacting our justice system, our juries, our jury trials and our hearings.

Currently criminal trials in Victoria must be heard by a jury, reflecting the longstanding and fundamental role of juries in the criminal justice system. The practice of trial by jury is a cornerstone of Western democracies dating back to ancient Greece, where up to 5001 Athenian citizens—all men of course—would act as jurors, hearing cases and making determinations on the innocence and guilt of the accused. And whilst juries have been streamlined from 5001 to 12, the principle of a citizen jury has remained a key pillar of our Western civilisation and our justice system in Victoria and Australia.

Currently our Supreme and County courts are running jury trials in COVID-safe ways, implementing measures such as working from home for non-jury work in order to reduce the number of people physically in the courtroom; making sure that COVID testing is happening for jurors, for trial participants and for legal practitioners through the use of rapid antigen testing; and the opening up of trial and jury rooms to allow for social distancing—all things that we did not have to consider before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the measures being adopted and the innovation, flexibility and hard work of the Department of Justice and Community Safety, it has not been immune from COVID delays and disruptions. For example, as a result of COVID the available pool of jurors has been affected, with more potential jurors asking to be excused. You can imagine that in terms of people with disability, vulnerabilities and underlying health concerns, they would have been very concerned to be exposed by being out and about. COVID restrictions across the state have also resulted in jury trials being adjourned and juries being discharged. These delays and disruptions have not only created a backlog of cases but have had negative impacts on complainants and victims as well as the accused, particularly those on remand.

As a result of these issues, I am willing to support the temporary reintroduction of the judge-alone trial model, which operated from April 2020 until April 2021. I do this knowing that over the last 11 months this model has operated effectively and is already known to our courts and legal profession. I do so also with the commitment that this reform is limited for the next 12 months and then it will be repealed. I also note that the significant difference from the 2020 model will be to provide that an order for a judge-only trial may only be made when a pandemic declaration under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 is in force. This is the case as a result of our new pandemic management legislation framework.

With the short time that I have got left I just want to say that I am really pleased that our key stakeholders—whether they be the County Court, the Office of Public Prosecutions, Victoria Legal Aid or the Law Institute of Victoria—have been consulted and they do support the reintroducing of judge-alone trials on that temporary basis that I also talked about. Further, the Supreme Court of Victoria has no issues with this proposal.

Thank you very much to all the people who have worked in our legal, justice and corrections systems; the public servants in our departments; and the incredible organisations that provide mental health, alcohol and drug, family violence, psychological and housing services and support at a state level as well as in my community of Ballarat. I will draw to the end of my talk by saying that delaying justice is an injustice itself, and I commend this bill to the house.

Click here to read more of my contributions in Parliament. To access further Hansard transcripts, head to the Parliament of Victoria website.