Government incompetence over DNALab cant be used to justify law changes

The Civil Liberties Council has today accused the Palaszczuk Government of laying the groundwork to rewrite in a wholesale way the double jeopardy law to distract public attention from its failure over many years in power to properly fund the State’s DNA Lab.

Civil Liberties Council Vice-President (Terry O’Gorman) said that the push by prominent State Labor MP Jonty Bush to completely rewrite the absolutely fundamental criminal law rule that a person can only be put on Trial once for a criminal offence except for very exceptional circumstances bears the hallmarks of a cynical scheme being hatched by the State Government to move the debate about the problems of the State’s DNA Lab away from the Government’s failure over many long years to properly fund the Lab to a cynical law and order debate.

Jonty Bush is a prominent Government member of the Queensland Parliament’s Legal Affairs and Safety Committee and is seen as a rapidly rising Queensland politician since her election in 2020”, Mr O’Gorman said.

Mr O’Gorman said that Ms Bush, the State Member for a Brisbane western suburbs seat, must have the blessing of the Premier and the Police Minister to publicly announce today that she would lobby relevant Ministers to “seek legislation change” in the double jeopardy law.

“The current debate about the State DNA Lab should be concentrating on the abject failure of the current State Government which has been in power for most of the last 30 years to properly fund the State’s DNA Lab”, Mr O’Gorman said.

Mr O’Gorman said that the recently released Sofronoff Interim Report on the failure of the State DNA Lab shows that the shortcuts taken by the Lab were done to deal with the ever present huge delays in processing DNA samples for criminal cases

“The State Government has known for well over a decade, if not longer, that Queensland Courts and Police have been complaining about huge delays due to systemic funding inadequacies for the State’s DNA Lab”, Mr O’Gorman said.

Mr O’Gorman said the State Government has had two options to deal with the Lab’s problems – properly fund the Lab or acquiesce in the 2018 decision to cut corners in the absence of proper State Government funding.

“The Government in 2018 agreed to the ‘cut corners’ approach against a background over many years of failing to properly fund the Lab”, Mr O’Gorman said.

Mr O’Gorman said that the rule against double jeopardy is as fundamental and basic to the operation of a criminal justice system in a democracy as the laws relating to presumption of innocence and proof beyond reasonable doubt.

“To change the double jeopardy law to get the State Government out of a political problem of its own making must be fought robustly and vigorously”, Mr OGorman said.