The Tasmanian Government is committed to addressing the challenges facing our State’s Justice and Corrections systems.
I am pleased to see that the Productivity Commission’s annual Report on Government Services shows significant improvements in key indicators across the Tasmanian Justice and Corrections systems.
The Supreme Court’s clearance rate rose to 92.4 per cent in 2019-20, the highest rate recorded since 2015-16.
Criminal finalisations in the Supreme Court increased 22.6 per cent and the real net recurrent expenditure per finalisation decreased by 29.7 per cent to $13,579.
The clearance rate for all civil matters in the Supreme Court increased from 117.5 per cent in 2018-19 to 150.9 per cent in 2019-20, the highest rate recorded since data has been published.
We are continuing to address backlogs in the Supreme Court and have committed to providing $1.1 million per annum for a seventh Judge commencing from 1 July 2021 with expressions of interest in that position to be publicly called for shortly.
The clearance rate in the Magistrates Court for all civil matters increased to 115.3 per cent, compared to the national clearance rate of 98.3 per cent.
The Government has also recently introduced comprehensive legislative reforms to improve the efficiency of the Supreme Court and the Magistrates Court, which are having a positive effect.
Meanwhile, Tasmania has the highest rate of finalised community-based orders classified as successful in Australia at 82.6 per cent and the proportion of offenders returning to Community Corrections within a two-year period after completion of their order has decreased to 20.9 per cent.
Tasmania’s prison utilisation rate of 92.6 per cent was the lowest of the five jurisdictions that report on this indicator and the State’s imprisonment rate of 156.5 per 100,000 adult population is low compared to other jurisdictions.
We will continue our work on creating more effective and efficient Justice and Corrections systems, and I am confident improvements will continue to show as we continue to implement our initiatives.
Elise Archer, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice and Minister for Corrections
