Innocent Retain Rights - Buried Budget Measure Defeated
An attempt by the Labor Government to achieve budget savings through cuts to fundamental legal rights has been defeated by the Legislative Council.
Hidden within the Statutes Amendment (Budget 2011) Bill 2011 were measures that would have put a presumption against costs being awarded against police prosecutors where a person was found to be innocent by the Courts.
The changes would have meant that innocent people would have ended up thousands of dollars out of pocket defending themselves in Court - so Labor could save $1.6m.
The reforms would have seen a drop in police standards, a greater burden on legal aid, the removal of the right to silence and more people being forced to plead guilty for crimes they did not commit.
In 2010-11 Labor aimed for 85 per cent of police prosecutions to be successful, but in 2011-12 the target has been reduced by ten percentage points to 75 per cent[1]. The reforms would have meant that the disincentive for running weak prosecution cases was removed.
Shadow Attorney-General Stephen Wade said that “the changes clearly showed Labor’s disregard for the rights of individuals, for the Courts and for police standards.
“We thank the cross-benches for standing with the Liberal Party to defeat Labor’s desperate rights-robbing penny-pinching.
“We also acknowledge the strong advocacy of the Law Society of South Australia and Australian Lawyers Alliance on behalf of South Australians.
“Labor cannot be trusted to protect the rights of South Australians,” Mr Wade said.
[1] 2011-12 Budget Paper 4, Volume 3, p100