East Maitland Court, the AG & DPP

It is hardly earth-shattering news to hear that the Director of Public Prosecutions in NSW is asked to fulfil extraordinary tasks while simultaneously being under-resourced.

The 2007-08 Annual Report of the DPP made that point very clear when the Director Nicholas Cowdery (who has to be rated as one of the most intelligent and lively legal minds in NSW) stated:

"Budget cuts, in bureaucratic language, are described as 'efficiency improvement dividends' and therein lies a clue to the way they are to be addressed. When required to develop an Efficiency Improvement Plan the Office was unable to identify any reductions in expenditure that would not have the effects of transferring work and shifting costs elsewhere. As a demand-driven agency working to capacity the Office has no 'fat' to cut when requirements of this kind are made."

The "illustrious" 2008 mini-budget was supposed to allow for the employment of 14 extra solicitors for a period of two years commencing 1 January 2009. Sounds like a band-aid measure to cover over a gaping wound.

Now a minor skirmish is erupting in East Maitland as there are simply not enough Crown Prosecutors available to appear in court. Of course in comes the spin that there is really not a problem at all.

What on earth is the NSW Attorney General Mr Hatzistergos and his Director General Mr Glanfield doing to the Attorney General's Department? Why is there so much spin injected into the press to persuade the public that this department is in ship-shape condition? Perhaps it is time that the Minister and his Director General were called to account for their administrative decisions.