Serious questions have been raised over whether severe staff shortages and extreme budget pressures at Queensland's government-run forensic science laboratories drove a controversial ruling that has cast a cloud over thousands of major crime investigations.
Together Union state secretary Alex Scott has hit out at both sides of politics, describing them as culpable in creating an environment that resulted in the decision, which led forensic scientists to provide misleading statements to courts.
"Both this government and the previous government were consistently warned about problems within the centre in relation to the underfunding, the under-resourcing and the cultural problems," Mr Scott said.
"We've been calling for too long for the government to actually step in and make sure it has enough money and staff to do the job properly."
Mr Scott has called on the commission of inquiry into forensic DNA testing in Queensland to examine the extent to which resourcing failures were involved.
An interim report by inquiry head Walter Sofronoff KC, a former Queensland Court of Appeal president, found that between early 2018 and June this year, laboratory scientists gave "untrue" or "misleading" witness statements about the detection of DNA in some crime scene samples.
Mr Sofronoff found that under an agreement between Queensland Health and the Queensland Police Service, crime scene samples that did not contain quantities of DNA above a certain threshold were not processed further and were reported in witness statements as having "insufficient DNA for analysis".
He said this was despite the possibility of obtaining "an interpretable profile".
Forensic labs need 'massive injection of funds'
Two employees at Queensland Health's Forensic and Scientific Services have been stood down in the wake of the interim report.
Mr Scott described their suspension by Queensland Health's acting director-general Shaun Drummond as "inappropriate", given Mr Sofronoff is yet to finish his inquiry.
"Suspending two people halfway through this process clearly looks like a media reaction rather than addressing the fundamental issues and ensuring they don't happen again," he said.
"The government itself needs to be more responsible for the whole situation.
"The centre has never recovered from the cuts that occurred under the Campbell Newman government, but we've failed to see a regrowth of this centre compared to other parts of the health system."
Mr Scott said Queensland's forensic science laboratories needed a "massive injection of funds" not only to deal with an ongoing huge backlog of testing that had existed over years, but also to cope with the increased workload created by Mr Sofronoff's interim findings.
"We've seen criticisms from judges for a long period of time about backlogs and delays," he said.
"This isn't something that has been hidden from the broader community.
"It needs money, it needs staff and both sides of politics need to start working on a solution rather than focusing on one appalling decision made in a toxic environment.
"It's unrealistic to achieve the time frame required by the courts for timely justice without a significant increase in resources."
In his interim report, Mr Sofronoff called on the Queensland government to take steps to ensure that publicly-funded bodies required to "investigate, consider and resolve" issues in relation to the DNA ruling, were given enough money to resolve "any miscarriages of justice".
A police task force will re-examine thousands of major crime investigations over questions about the adequacy of DNA evidence, given the findings in the report.
Calls for further submissions
Mr Sofronoff, who has not publicly singled out any individual for the DNA ruling, will open public hearings in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on Monday and has called for more public submissions until October 21, "because of the concerning issues raised in the interim report".
"I want victims of crime, defendants, lawyers, forensic experts, and both current and former public servants and police to bring relevant matters to my attention," Mr Sofronoff said.
Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said Queensland Health provided extra staff to Forensic and Scientific Services earlier this year and "will also ensure there is sufficient resourcing to implement the recommendations of the interim report".
"It would not be appropriate to speculate or presuppose any causative factors that may have led to the findings of the interim report," Ms D'Ath said.
"These will be explored further and examined in the final report due later in the year."
Click here to make a submission to the Sofronoff inquiry.
