It’s been a while since they have had proper committals in New South Wales. Committals are of course the procedural hearings in common law countries that follow the English tradition of only allowing for trials before a jury where the evidence is of a sufficient weight that a properly instructed jury could possibly make a guilty finding.

The trick of course has been the process of determining that the evidence is of a sufficient weight. Usually that is done by testing the evidence through the ancient right of confronting one’s accuser and other witnesses with cross examination.

Of course it was thought by some of the more prosecutorial minded lawyers that it is a little too fair on the accused to give them two bites of the cherry in allowing for multiple chances at cross examining witnesses given that they get to have a go at the committal, and also at the subsequent trial.

So, in New South Wales in 2018 the government abolished committal hearings in their entirety, replacing them with a certification process in which the prosecution has to sign off that the evidence is of a sufficient weight that a jury could find an accused guilty.

Victoria is never far behind New South Wales. In 2022, the government passed legislation that effectively removed committals in sex offences where the complainant was under the age of 18. Not only are you not permitted to apply to cross examine the complainant, but you are not permitted to cross examine any witnesses either!

It is not difficult to see how this procedure could be abused for political reasons. Unfortunately, it is only a matter of time until committals are abolished in Victoria in their entirety. And with it, conviction rates will climb, and this will have nothing to do with whether or not the accused has actually committed the crime, but rather everything to do with removing a significant forensic advantage that an accused once had in running their defence.