The Walter Sofronoff inquiry tells us it's time for real reform

It was a bad look.

Aside from the issues concerning the performance of particular ACT government officials which Sofronoff was required to review, there are wider issues of governance that need to be tackled if trust is to be restored in the ACT's system of justice.

Foremost of these is to resolve who is responsible for the administration of justice in the ACT?

Complicating this is that a number of agencies like the Director of Public Prosecutions, although part of ACT government, are also part of the legal system separate from and independent of direct government control on a day-to-day basis. Also, the Australian Federal Police, a key subject of the inquiry's terms of reference, are a federal, not ACT government, agency.

One possible reform, although not in the Sofronoff report, might be for future senior appointments like that of Director of Public Prosecutions to involve more bipartisan participation in the selection processes than presently occurs. It might help to end claims of politicisation. Some states adopt such a procedure for appointing corruption watchdog commissioners.

It could be asked: why was no one in ACT government overseeing its justice system more closely? Surely someone in authority should have known. Was ministerial oversight lacking?

Of course, the purpose of boards of inquiry with their statutory coercive investigatory powers is to probe, cross-examine, and expose what was not fully known previously. And the role of ministers is to act, as they see appropriate on those inquiry recommendations.

The real measure of integrity now for the ACT government is how effectively it implements all those recommendations that it has accepted. Accepting recommendations is easy but putting them into action effectively is not always the same thing.

The Daniel Andrews Victorian government appointed a royal commission into the Management of Police Informants. Its recommendations were accepted. A separate agency, investigator and monitoring process were established to implement the recommendations, but it came unstuck because of disagreements between key agencies and individuals and the whole process has now been closed down.

Unless the ACT government acts firmly and effectively on the Sofronoff findings along with other remedial measures, trust in its administration of justice will remain under a cloud.