Legislative Council, Tuesday 21 March, 2023

Ms FORREST to LEADER of the GOVERNMENT in the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, Mrs Hiscutt

With regard to the development of the new integrated and the temporary file management system across the Department of Justice.

(1) What is the total budget for this new system?

(a) How much has been spent to date?

(b) Is the project on budget? If not, please provide an explanation of any budget overruns.

(2) What are the time lines for this project?

(a) If the time lines have not the key stages, please provide an explanation of the reasons.

(3) What is the project deliverable including with regard to capacity of full electronic integration across the Justice system? The current levels have been changed, perhaps. Have these deliverables been met? If not, why not?

(4) Are there similar systems in place in other jurisdictions? If so, were these considered as options for use by the Tasmanian Department of Justice? If not, why not?

(5) What is the current expected date of completion for this project?

ANSWER

I would be concerned, Member for Murchison, if something has been changed. If you could please follow up on that and let me know.

Ms Forrest - There is just an added bit in, which - I think - was part of the answer. Anyway, we will see.

Mrs HISCUTT - Alright, if you are happy.

Ms Forrest - It is alright, I have read it as it should be.

Mrs HISCUTT - The answer to question (1). Total capital project funding from the Government is $32 million. As from 28 February 2023, the program has spent $19.9 million.

(b) The project is currently scoped to deliver jury management, criminal corrections, parole board, criminal courts and prosecutions and prison kiosks. The project is currently on track to deliver each of the deliverables within a $32 million budget. The project has experienced cashflow delays. However, it is expected to be within the allocated budget.

(2) Major milestones for the project are: release 1, jury management, November 2022 is completed; release 2, criminal corrections, planned go live August 2023 is on track; release 3, parole board, planned go live October 2023 is on track; release 4, criminal courts and prosecutions, planned go live November 2023 is experiencing delays; release 5, prisoner self-service, planned go live April 2024 is on track.

With regard to release 4, criminal courts and prosecutions, planned go live November 2023, this has experienced a number of issues that are slowing progress. The pertinent factors here are: court and prosecution process complexity, especially with designing process to fulfil the requirements of the Magistrates Court (Criminal and General Division) Act of 2019.

Many future state processes and requirements for the act remain undefined, which has delayed the system build. Uncertainty with several legislative issues regarding the (Criminal and General Division) (Consequential Amendments) transitional provisions and rules and regulations and also the lack of availability of subject matter experts across the administration of justice system due to operational commitments and their resources and skill shortages. Also, staff turnover in the courts, program team and the DPFEM; and lastly, the inability to recruit skilled resources in the current market shortage.

(3) Build and deploy integrated court case management system, including accessibility for members of the legal community; build and deploy an integrated electronic prosecution system between ODPP and DPFEM prosecutions; build and deploy an integrated prison management system; build and deploy an integrated Community Corrections system; deploy a jury management system; build and deploy a parole board management system; deliver prisoner self service software integrated with the prisoner management system; build and deploy an enhanced court outcome system between Astria and DPFEM; implement the Criminal and General act 2019 elements into the new Astria system.

(3)(a) The only major deliverable that has been met to date is jury management. All other major deliverables are still being built and are within agreed time frames.

(4) Astria comprises two main areas of system. Corrections management is delivered by a commercial off the shelf system called Syscon Elite. Criminal case management is delivered by a commercial off the shelf system called Journal Technologies eSuit (TBC) comprising of eCourt and eProsecutor. Syscon Elite is currently deployed in Corrective Services New South Wales and is being rolled out at the Department for Correctional Services in South Australia and Tasmania. Journal Technologies eCourt is currently in production in South Australia for criminal and civil modules. Court Services Victoria has implemented the eCourt civil system and are currently rolling out criminal eCourt. All three jurisdictions have formed a user group called Journal Users Group (JUG). The Northern Territory uses a system called Tyler Technologies which was evaluated by the Department of Justice during the request for tender but was not selected by the department. Western Australia is currently investigating options to replace their current system, A1. These systems are considered as part of the competitive request for tender (RFT) conducted in 2019. Tyler Technologies and Journal eSuit were frontrunners in that process. At the time the tender was conducted, no Australian jurisdiction had implemented Journal eCourt in relation to a criminal justice system. The Courts Authority of South Australia successfully deployed eCourt across its three court jurisdictions in August 2022. The Court Connect team has evaluated this implementation and is currently considering adopting it for Tasmania, as it appears to meet most of the needs for Tasmania and would assist the department to speed up the currently slow development of the court components of Astria.

(5) The current completion date for Astria is expected to be in quarter two in 2024 once the project support for the prison self-service components are complete.