“The State Courts Administration Council welcomes the opportunity the Commissioner’s Inquiry has given to victims of harassment to speak out about their experiences, many for the first time. The Council will adopt the recommendations relevant to the CAA. We will also consider the recommendations of the enquiry into harassment in the Victorian Courts published yesterday.
The Council is very concerned about some of the information provided to the Inquiry but the Commission noted ‘that responses received during the Review did not detail incidences of harassment perpetrated by any sitting judicial officer.’
Overbearing and bullying behaviour is totally unacceptable and the Council will continue and increase its efforts to stop it happening and support our employees who have suffered this behaviour.
Opportunities to report such behaviour in an anonymous or otherwise safe way which were established in 2019 will be publicised even more widely and additional options will be adopted. We will arrange for programmes on power imbalances which are being developed by the National Judicial College of Australia for judges to be provided to all South Australian Judicial officers and additional training will be arranged for managers.
STOPline, an impartial third-party organisation appointed by the CAA in September 2020 to support anonymous reporting, enables staff to disclose concerns of inappropriate behaviour. The service is available to all staff.”
Enquiries: Media and Communications Office
Phone: 82040403 or 0467795291
Email: media@courts.sa.gov.au