The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has announced a commission of inquiry into DNA testing at the state’s Forensic and Scientific Services laboratory after accusations it has been failing victims of crime.
The inquiry will be conducted by Walter Sofronoff, the president of the court of appeal, and comes in addition to a previously announced review into the state-run forensics laboratory.
Palaszczuk said submissions to a women’s justice and safety taskforce and information put forward by Queensland police had shown a broader inquiry was needed and that terms of reference would be released later this week.
“It is clear to me that nothing short of a full, open and rigorous commission of inquiry can restore confidence in DNA testing in this state,” the premier said.
Palaszczuk said the inquiry will examine all aspects and operations of the lab, which analyses about 28,000 samples a year.
The premier said the commissioner will be able to draw on independent experts already in line to conduct the initial review.
A report in The Australian last week said almost 600 crime scene samples were not tested by the lab in 2021 due to being judged to have “insufficient DNA for further processing”. Police asked for 47 of these samples to be tested anyway, and 31 returned usable DNA profiles, the report said.
The state’s health minister, Y’vette D’Ath, said the timeframe for the commission of inquiry would be up to six months as it was a “complex matter that may take some time”.
D’Ath said while the review is ongoing forensic services would “immediately remove” the threshold for DNA profiling that has been in place since 2018 “to give the public confidence in the DNA testing” in the state.
She acknowledged the family of Shandee Blackburn, who died after being stabbed more than 20 times when she was walking home in Mackay in 2013.
An inquiry into Blackburn’s death was announced after the podcast Shandee’s Story examined the alleged handling of DNA evidence in the case.
“We’re very pleased that we can announce this commission of inquiry today to give that comfort and confidence to the public and also to recognise the family of Shandee Blackburn,” D’Ath said.
“I do hope that the reopening of the coroner’s investigation may lead to some closure for that family but of course this is much broader than one family.”
Dr Kirsty Wright, a forensic biologist who was interviewed on the Shandee’s Story podcast, described the handling of the murder case as a “train wreck”.
Wright alleged the laboratory was failing to detect DNA in samples taken in rape and sexual assault cases.
“This lab and the flawed results and the inaccurate results, it’s compromising our criminal justice system and it’s compromising public safety,” Dr Wright told the podcast, produced by The Australian.
Queensland’s opposition leader, David Crisafulli, welcomed the commission of inquiry.
“This is a win for victims, it’s a win for the police, it’s a win for the whistleblowers,” Crisafulli said.
“It’s a win for every Queenslander who deserves a justice system that can provide them a level of service. And that’s what we have today.”
Julie Sarkozi, a lawyer at Women’s Legal Service Queensland, also applauded the announcement.
She said “survivors deserve more” and that she hopes that the inquiry “will expose and redress the deficiencies in the QHFSS lab procedure and protocols”.
Sarkozi said any possible prosecutions of historical rapes should only be done with the consent of survivors.
“Whatever the outcomes and recommendations that come out of the inquiry, the actual charging and prosecution of rape and sexual offences should always be trauma informed and survivor driven.”
