Safety standards in the courts
The State Government recently released its full response to the report of the Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence. The Society welcomes the Government’s acceptance of the majority of the report’s recommendations.
The Society’s State Election Platform called for the full implementation of recommendations 114-117. The Government’s response to these recommendations is outlined in the table below.
The Society welcomes the Government’s plan to build a vulnerable witness suite in the CBD that will be trauma-informed and located separately to the courts.
South Australia’s court infrastructure has been inadequate for many years, with successive governments failing to make the sufficient investment needed to accommodate demand, meet basic access standards, upgrade deteriorating infrastructure, and provide spaces that give court users (victims, witnesses, and defendants) necessary privacy and dignity. The Royal Commission's recommendations that a capital fund be set up to ensure the courts meet minimum domestic, family and sexual violence safety standards for court infrastructure is, in the Society’s view, an obvious and urgent need.
South Australia’s metropolitan court buildings and several regional court facilities desperately need significant upgrades. One of the deficiencies, as highlighted by the recent Royal Commission, was a lack of trauma-informed, psychologically safe spaces for vulnerable participants of the courts.
The Royal Commission's report mirrored the results of a survey the Society conducted in 2023, in which a number of practitioners highlighted the sub-standard witness and interview rooms in the courts, which are cramped, not conducive to private discussions, and, in the criminal law sphere, result in defendants and victims regularly crossing paths.
The Society urges the Government to adopt in full the recommendations of the Royal Commission in relation to court resources and commit to a larger infrastructure program to address the most dangerous risks associated with the current facilities, which include ageing and defective infrastructure, non-compliance with access standards, and a shortage of space to properly accommodate criminal trials.
Government response to Recommendations 114-117
|
No.
|
Full Recommendation
|
Government Response
|
Government Commentary
|
|
114
|
The South Australian government resource the Courts Administration Authority to establish vulnerable witness suites with appropriate technology, infrastructure and staffing in a non-court building in metropolitan Adelaide.
|
Accept
|
|
|
115
|
The South Australian government undertake an audit of existing government buildings to identify opportunities to establish vulnerable witness suites in regional locations with a court presence.
|
Accept in principle - for future consideration
|
|
|
116
|
The South Australian government resource the Courts Administration Authority to develop domestic, family and sexual violence safety standards for court infrastructure, informed by the Commissioner for Victims’ Rights and victim survivors with lived experience of the justice system. The new minimum safety standards should be used to inform a 10-year capital works plan.
|
Accept in principle - for future consideration
|
|
|
117
|
The South Australian government establish a capital infrastructure fund for the Courts Administration Authority to meet the minimum standards via a staged approach.
|
Accept in principle - for future consideration
|
The Courts Administration Authority will consider use of its existing annual capital program insofar as possible and any additional initiatives will be considered through state budget processes rather than via a dedicated fund.
|