Justice Legislation (Committals)
19th February 2025
I rise today to contribute to the Justice Legislation Amendment (Committals) Bill 2024.
This is a comprehensive reform bill which provides for several amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act 2009 and other similar related pieces of legislation to modernise how we deal with certain criminal cases.
At its core, these changes are designed to make sure our legal system is fit for the modern world, by protecting more victims from trauma, building a more efficient procedure, and hastening the process.
The aim of these reforms is principally to help minimise trauma felt by victims, by way of addressing inefficiencies in our justice system which have led to duplication of work and stress on victims and witnesses.
But first and foremost, I would like to thank the Minister for Police and Crime Prevention in the other place, my good friend Anthony Carbines for his hard work on this matter.
I’d also like to thank the Attorney-General, Minister Kilkenny, for her hard work and pivotal role in these reforms.
This has been in the works for quite some time now, and it has taken the collective effort of a large number of hard-working people from across the legal profession coming together to help shape these reforms.
Every year, hundreds and thousands of cases are brought before the courts.
That’s thousands upon thousands of witnesses, victims, and perpetrators.
About 3,000 criminal cases each year go through some kind of committal process in the Victorian magistrate's courts.
In simple terms, that’s a court hearing where the court determines whether there is enough evidence and enough of a case for the issue to be bumped further up the chain.
These court hearings can have quite lengthy processes.
It’s a tiresome process involving cross examination of witnesses, victims, and perpetrators, as well as of all the relevant information and evidence.
As my good friend Minister Carbines pointed out, there is a very understandable reason for this at first glance.
In our legal system, the process of commencing criminal proceedings for trial or sentencing emerged before independent police forces and prosecution agencies even existed here.
Back then, it was necessary for this whole process to be in place.
Our legal system needed to make some certain determination due to the lack of that independent policing or prosecution body.
It was the job of the magistrates to review and scrutinise the evidence of any given case to determine whether or not a case had merit or not and filtering out those that could not stand up to scrutiny.
It was the first line of review by the legal system.
Now, of course, Victoria has its own independent police force and a more robust legal system, with more agencies and a more fleshed out procedure for dealing with these matters.
Nonetheless, once cases pass into the courts, the proceedings can last quite a while longer still.
Sometimes they take weeks, sometimes months, and in rare cases, they can drag out for years on end.
Instances like this are unavoidable.
Our justice system must work hard to make sure every case is managed with the diligence and care needed and expected of the law.
But that does not mean there’s no room for improvement.
We should always be constantly innovating and improving our legal system, so that it not only can get things done quicker but does right by the most vulnerable of our society.
The simple reality of many criminal proceedings is that they can involve severely traumatic experiences for victims and relevant witnesses.
Whether it’s a case of family violence, stalking, or sexual offences, as covered by this legislation that I’ll touch on momentarily, the criminal cases will be traumatic for those impacted and involved.
Recalling those events and doing so repetitively under questioning in cross examination and in those early court hearings, can bring those same emotions and traumatic responses right back to the surface.
In short, we currently have a system where some cases are going on for a very long time, where key witnesses are cross examined and subjected to multiple rounds of questioning, which can bring up a lot of trauma for victims, all while the court gets backed up with these proceedings and cases.
And it needs to change.
In 2020, the Victorian Law Reform Commission published a report detailing its recommendations for reforms in key legal matters such as committals.
It’s a comprehensive set of reforms which the Allan Labor Government is committed to, and that’s ultimately why we are here today.
Many of the legal structures in this state are necessary, robust, and unparalleled.
But that does not mean they cannot be scrutinised and reformed where necessary.
We understand the need to reform and modernise our legal procedures in this state, and that was the underlying purpose of the report by the VLRC.
We are listening to the legal community’s feedback on how to reform the system, and we’re getting on with the job.
This amendment bill before the Chamber is a comprehensive adoption of these recommendations.
First, this bill will remove the committal test for trials.
For those who are not as familiar with the procedures, this is essential a pre-trial process conducted to determine whether or not the accused should stand trial.
This was one of the recommendations put forward by the Victorian Law Reform Commission in that report and principally has been ordered for the efficiency of the system.
The report made the point that an outsider may be able to immediately see the purpose or rationale behind having such a test.
After all, those tests on paper seem to be the standard committal check to determine whether the proceedings should continue, it sounds simple enough.
But the report by the VLRC found that in spite of that, in most cases going forward before the courts, the test was ultimately not necessary.
And that’s why we’re scrapping it.
The numbers suggest that anywhere from 1 to 2 percent of cases are thrown out at this initial stage, yet our system is still backlogged.
Hence the goal of this reform is to modernise how we process these cases.
We’re pushing towards a more modern case management process which can stamp out any cases or claims that don’t stack up against scrutiny but allowing cases to proceed in a timelier fashion.
Anything we can do to make our legal process and procedures better and smoother will always be welcomed by the Allan Labor Government.
We’re committed to reforming the system, and we want to get it right.
Next, this bill makes changes in relation to cross examination of victims, with further restrictions introduced and prohibitions expanded.
Victims and witnesses involved in cases of family violence, sexual offences and stalking will no longer be allowed to be cross examined before a trial.
The logic behind this is very simple.
Trials are a very lengthy process, and they involve recalling very traumatic memories, that can cause great distress and disturbance to many victims and witnesses.
Now owing to the length to which these trials can go on for, and the sensitive and traumatic nature of a lot of testimonies, it’s only right that we do not subject Victorians to that trauma repeatedly.
That’s why this reform will ensure victims only have to testify once, before a court.
It scraps the lengthy and repetitive subjection to scrutiny and questioning ahead of a trial, which can be deeply traumatic.
The bill retains provisions for cross examination of witnesses under circumstance, but with new protections and procedures.
Cross examination of a witness will now require an explanation as to how that examination is directly and substantially relevant to the issue, and why they should be questioned in the interests of justice.
This ensures that we are not dragging out legal proceedings for longer than necessary and demonstrating how cross examinations of these victims can be directly relevant.
Because otherwise we risk continuing the status quo, where victims are forced to relive their traumatic experiences for simple procedural matters.
The prohibition on cross-examination at a committal hearing will still apply to all matters relating to a charge of a sexual offence, a family violence offence, or an offence of stalking.
Under this legislation, the Magistrates' Court cannot grant leave to cross-examine a witness in these proceedings.
This is about protecting victims and families, and it’s crucial we get this right.
We need to protect victims, believe them, respect them, and support them.
That’s why this change is important.
It ensures they can safely come forward and not get bogged down in drawn out legal proceedings.
Instead, they can provide their singular statement or testimonies, in a court of law, and continue on.
Another key aspect of this legislation is to make our legal proceedings more efficient by helping resolve more cases and disputes before trial.
Another provision in this bill is a new push to fast-track certain cases to the Supreme Court.
This extends primarily to cases of murder or manslaughter.
This was another reform recommended by the Victorian Law Reform Commission, which drew on examples in other cases where this was proved successful.
In line with this, this bill has a new model for early committals in these cases, which will allow these cases to be expedited by being fast tracked to the Supreme Court of Victoria.
This is just another aspect of this legislation which helps deliver a faster and more efficient legal process.
Allowing for these extreme cases, that of murder and manslaughter, to be moved swiftly upwards means we have less backlog for cases like family violence which are otherwise being sped up through the ban on cross examination.
It’s a great reform, and it’s backed up by the recommendations put forward by the VLRC.
This legislation is yet another groundbreaking reform initiative by the Allan Labor Government.
It’s a direct reflection of our commitment to making Victoria’s legal system fairer for all Victorians.
We listened to the community, and to law experts, and came together to hash out a plan to build a more efficient and resilient legal system.
The pre-trial procedures in place right now are quite an old system, built to manage cases before we had an independent police force and prosecution service.
The fact of the matter is that this is not the world we live in today.
We do have strong, robust, and independent legal systems in Victoria now.
Our legal system should not be hung up on managing issues from two centuries ago and should be relevant to contemporary legal challenges.
Cases are being held up and dragged out by procedures which are not relevant nor providing much in the way of filtering out problematic cases.
This is why the reforms out of this legislation are so important.
We’re focused not just on the outcomes of these cases, but ensuring we’re protecting the Victorian community and delivering fairer outcomes and fairer processes for everyone.
No one should be subjected to needlessly repetitive lines of questioning and cross examination in these tough cases.
We can avoid the strong risk of re-traumatising victims and witnesses and minimise the necessary input by scrapping the cross-examination process and allowing them to provide their recollections at trial only.
Victims in cases of family violence, of sexual offences, or in cases of stalking are often deeply disturbed and traumatised by what has happened, and it’s not right that they have to relive it multiple times.
By also increasing the standards for which witnesses can be cross examined, we also protect them as well from undue or unnecessary stress and trauma.
This government is also acting to make sure that murderers and those charged with manslaughter are not clogging up our lower courts.
By fast tracking them to the Supreme Court of Victoria, we can see these cases dealt with faster, and in the appropriate avenue.
This also clears up backlogs in the lower courts and means less severe court cases and trials can proceed quicker without as long a wait.
This helps people pass through the court system faster, and ensures criminals are behind bars quicker.
It’s part of our plan to help resolve more legal proceedings quicker, by trying to both deal with this backlog in the courts and also to help more disputes resolve before they even get to trial.
That’s why we’re also scrapping the committal test, which allows for cases to pass on up through to the courts quicker and ensure witnesses and victims are not being bogged down in legal bureaucracy.
But of course, ensuring that more cases can be filtered out is the whole reason for our modernisation of case management.
It’s the Allan Labor Government that set out its commitment to justice reform and we’re now delivering it.
We want to see more people engaging with our legal system and have the ability to do so without unnecessary stresses and pressures.
In line with the Victorian Law Reform Commission’s recommendations, we are ensuring more Victorians who experience or witness cases of family violence, or sexual offences, or stalking, are not forced to relive their trauma through needless cross examinations.
We want them to feel safe and secure when they come forward.
That’s why we are removing these needless procedures.
And it’s also why extremely good reasons need to be provided to the court.
This is a comprehensive set of reforms that have taken quite some time and a lot of work to put together.
I am incredibly thankful for all the hard work put in by the Ministers and all the relevant legal experts who have helped not just to create the VLRC report, but also to help execute it now into practice.
Given the thousands upon thousands of cases that stand to be impacted by this legislation, I think it’s safe to say this would have transformative effects on our legal system.
Backlogs can be cleared out and strung-out legal proceedings can be shortened.
And most importantly, Victorians will be more protected and cared for in our legal system than before.
I commend this bill to the chamber.