It concerns the serial, continued use of suppression orders by Victorian courts.

Now, I do realise that the COVID crisis has probably badly delayed the progress of a number of Open Courts Act reforms this year.  However that should not (in itself) be an excuse for the excessive continued reliance by Victorian courts on suppression orders – and, more to the point, the failure to adhere to the provisions of that Act in a series of cases.

To quote from revelations, and associated commentary, in an article by Tessa Akerman in The Australian newspaper on 17 July, the details of as many as 18 convicted and alleged criminals facing offences of rape, threat to kill and assaulting police were suppressed just by Victorian County Court judges in the preceding month alone.

That was part of a much wider pattern that, for years, has seen Victorian courts impose literally hundreds more suppression orders annually than any of the other States and Territories.

In each of 2017, 2018 and 2019, for example, there were more than 440 suppression orders granted.  In no other State or Territory were more than 200 granted in any of those years.

Worse still, there have been a host of occasions where judges have failed to observe the Open Courts Act requirement to notify the media of the imminent application of particular suppression orders.

Ms Akerman notes that, during November 2019 as an example, notice was correctly given of just one among seven such orders.

It is the view of Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party that the sheer current volume of suppression orders (let alone the apparent failure to follow due process in relation to some of them) should not be allowed to endure.  I believe this would also be a majority view among Victorians, too.

As I have said on many occasions in this Parliament, people are entitled to expect that the principles of transparency and openness will always be fundamental to the conduct of court cases in Victoria.

In that context, the action I seek from the Attorney-General is that she provide an explanation of what remedies will be pursued by the Government in order to overcome the over-use of suppression orders and the courts’ failure to correctly notify the media (and therefore the public) about them in many cases.

As part of that, I would be grateful if the Attorney could also outline the current timelines for when the Legislative Council might expect to see the next Bill or Bills that are aimed at implementing the outstanding recommendations of the Vincent Review that are still yet to be enshrined in law.