Through it, I again want to express the concerns of Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party about the changes during the coronavirus period to court processes, and bail arrangements and conditions.

We have foreshadowed a number of times, including during the passage in April of the Government’s COVID-19 Omnibus Bill, the wide range of risks associated with allowing for the early termination of court cases and for expedited approvals and relaxed conditions for bail.

Sadly, these risks do now appear to have translated into reality – and this was a point again reinforced by two Herald Sun articles published on its website over the weekend.

The first recounted the case of an offender in Melbourne who kidnapped and viciously bashed a teenager but was bailed even after telling police he would violently assault the victim again if he was released.

The second article focused on the exacerbation of the already-long delays in Victoria’s court system as a consequence of the pandemic.

In particular, that second article took up the point that significantly lower numbers of offenders (including violent offenders) are now in prison than would otherwise typically be the case.  This includes many violent youths who are openly gloating (particularly on social media) about their good fortune in having been granted bail.

Through this adjournment matter, the action I seek is that the Attorney provide me with key statistics reflecting the practical impact of these various changes.

To be more precise about that, what I am requesting are figures that indicate each of the following, specifically for the full period dating back to when the relevant changes to court processes and bail arrangements in the COVID Omnibus Bill first took effect in 2020:

• for cases that have been defended, the overall median time between arrest and case finalisation;
• for cases proceeding to trial, the median time between the committal for trial and the outcome;
• the total number of defendants who have appeared in court cases;
• the total number of defendants’ cases that have been finalised (including how many of those have not proceeded to trial);
• the total number of defendants against whom convictions have been recorded;
• the total number of people who have been released on parole;
• the total number of people who have been granted bail;
• the average time for processing bail applications; and
• the total number of breaches of bail reporting conditions, including specifically of electronic monitoring requirements.

I also ask for the figures for all of those data sets for exactly the same periods of the year in each of 2018 and 2019.