A DISPUTE about the alleged mistranslation of the Indonesian word ''push'' has cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars after it caused a criminal trial to be aborted.

The suspected mistake occurred as an accused Indonesian people smuggler gave evidence in his trial at the District Court last month.

The perceived problems were raised by a juror who speaks Indonesian and wrote a note to the judge alerting him to ''some discrepancies in the translation'' of the questions put to the accused. The problem - which the now retired District Court Judge David Freeman said he had not encountered in 31 years on the bench - led to the discharge of the jury on the 10th day of the trial, which will now have to be run again next year.

In a second note, the juror gave two examples; in one the words ''did you stop anyone moving'' were allegedly translated as ''did you push anyone'', in the other the interpreter allegedly translated the word ''deny'' as ''push''.

The head of the school of language and linguistics at the University of NSW, associate Professor Ludmila Stern, said some interpreters were not very good and their work should be assessed by independent experts or other interpreters.