AUSTRALIA
Newcastle Herald

Joanne McCarthy
13 Apr 2017

PUBLIC prosecution offices across Australia could be held accountable for their decision-making for the first time after “significant problems” identified by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Prosecution offices could be subject to oversight, have to provide reasons for discontinuing or failing to proceed with prosecutions, or be subject to internal reviews, royal commission chair Justice Peter McClellan will tell a prosecutors’ conference in Melbourne on Thursday.

He also flagged the likelihood of resistance from the legal fraternity to significant recommendations expected in a criminal justice report to governments in August, ahead of a final royal commission report to Governor General Sir Peter Cosgrove in December.

“There are likely to be some, perhaps many, practitioners and judges, who are resistant to change,” Justice McClellan said.