Today, as a Royal Commission begins its work, Victoria’s criminal justice system is at a cross-roads - a watershed moment.



For decades, we have watched Queensland go through the Fitzgerald process - where corrupt police from the top down, worked with corrupt politicians from the top down - to advance their financial and political interests.



We have watched as Eddie Obeid is gaoled in NSW and their ICAC uncovered systemic corruption in their body politic

We have smugly sat by and thought ‘here in Victoria we are better than them’. Well, turns out we ain't squeaky clean after all.



Throughout the underworld wars that claimed so many gangsters lives over a decade, we often wondered why Victoria Police seemed virtually powerless to stop it.



We wondered how gangsters could openly strut around the streets, boasting publicly about their prowess, and almost daring the authorities to come after them.



Often we wondered whether incompetence or corruption were part and parcel of the problem.



Eventually a few crooks and crooked cops were dealt with, and with some spectacular arrests and trials, the main protagonists were put behind bars. The killings stopped - although the drugs kept flowing.



Now we have a Royal Commission starting today that gives us the chance to learn how that peace was achieved, whether those convictions were tainted and if the results of some of those trials in our courts were contrived.



But the rot is deeper than just a few mobsters complaints of miscarriage of justice.



The trouble goes much further than the still running IBAC inquiry into the Silk Miller case where retired police are on oath saying that they were ordered to doctor witness statements and edit evidence to fit a desired outcome in a trial.



We have been told that it is "endemic" in detectives work to do so and that part of their training was to learn how to deceive the courts.



Shocking - but I believe the problems go further.



At stake is nothing less than whether the citizens of Victoria can trust our legal system and whether we can have confidence in our courts.



It is a non-negotiable basic and fundamental cornerstone of democracy that the courts work fairly and that anyone accused of a crime gets a fair hearing before losing their liberty.



But right here, right now, there are so many things going wrong it is hard to know where to start in fixing it.



1. We MUST see a redesign of the IBAC. Our anti-corruption watch dog was poorly put together, with defective legislation and exemptions that pander to vested interests. It must be redesigned with proper powers without exemptions.



2. The police complaints system just is not working. No amount of Police Association spin can disguise the reality. Police in Victoria have not been good at investigating police, despite some convictions. The hard nuts get away, and the internal culture of the force - whilst changing - seems resistant to essential reform.



3. The use of suppression orders in our courts is out of control. The public have no idea what is happening anymore, and there are some highly dubious uses of suppression orders every week. A suppression order ought never be applied to avoid embarrassment, or to protect an influential accused from public scrutiny.



Suppression orders are also meaningless in a digitally connected world, where information goes viral, sometimes sourced from overseas, and the orders of the court are rendered obsolete in minutes.



But when a suppression order is properly used, any breach MUST be prosecuted



This week, a large number - I am told 70 - media outlets and journalists across Australia and some overseas - including sadly one ABC programme - have been asked to show cause why they ought not be proceeded against for a clear breach of a suppression order from one of our courts. Editors and publishers as well as journalists could well go to gaol. This mass prosecution could lead to a test of the powers of the courts in the digital age, to control the flow of information that can interfere with the administration of justice.



Judge alone trials - instead of juries - in publicity sensitive matters are part of the answer and must be adopted urgently



4. The Legal Aid system is broken. The one thing that evens up the scales of justice for the vast majority of defendants is hardly functioning. The safety net has massive holes. It does not work for the accused, and Legal Aid pays lawyers so poorly now that many admirable candidates are deterred from taking on criminal law as a career option.



5. The imbalance in funding for prosecution and defence precludes a fair contest. As expenditure is endlessly bestowed on the prosecution to appease the powerful law and order lobby, but the defence have been ignored. This can lead to people going to gaol because they are poor - not because they are guilty.



6. The ethical and regulatory watchdog on not just the police but also lawyers has been found wanting. The Legal Services commission is a regulator, but just as the banking regulator has been caught out recently so we also need to ask how any lawyer in Victoria can practice for years in breach of their most basic obligations but not be discovered or sanctioned. How can rogue and dishonest lawyers be sometimes allowed to resume practice after just a short suspension of their ticket?



7. The courts are now administered by the judges. Is this experiment working? There is a pending coronial inquest into suicides in the courts. Strong steps have been taken to try to address this tragic outcome, but the anecdotes of over-work, stress, crushing schedules and unmanageable caseloads continues. An injection of funding is desperately needed. We have for decades under-invested in public transport and roads and now we are catching up - similarly we have to do the same with our courts.



8. The politicians, especially the new Attorney General Jill Hennessy who has inherited this ticking time bomb, has to decide whether to be in the passenger seat as these inquiries unfold or whether to grab the wheel and steer. There are clear lessons already learned - there is no case for simply awaiting the slow proceedings of a Royal Commission to conclude before commencing urgently needed repairs.



9. The whole system is in dire need of a review. It no longer does want it is supposed to do and is next to useless for citizens wanting to hold powerful government departments and bureaucrats to account. Documents are endlessly with-held on spurious grounds including the Kafka-esque "public immunity” claim - which is almost impossible to challenge.



10. We have here in Melbourne one of the world’s leading authorities on reforming a police complaints system...but she has never been asked for her advice. The state Ombudsman, Deborah Glass, led the police complaints system in England. She has offered to the Dept of Justice to assist but has not had that offer followed up. Astonishing.



The Attorney must not just refer these problems off to the Law Reform Commission or respond by saying we have to await the outcome of the Royal Commission and the IBAC hearing. The Silk Miller case and Lawyer X are representative of a bigger challenge and one that requires strong leadership from expert and open minds. And a sense of urgency.



You cannot reform the system piecemeal - you can't fix the system by resolving individual scandals.



Ask yourself - if you were accused of a serious crime tomorrow, what would you do?



Would you be confident that you would get a fair hearing, after all that we have learned this week?



You, the citizens, deserve better.



The very foundations of a decent democracy requires it.



We invited the Attorney General and the Police Association to join us today for this discussion - both declined.