This year, your union became aware through the NSW Ombudsman’s report that previous inmate misconduct findings would be overturned and that going forward, any findings must be based on the standard of beyond reasonable doubt.

This would have led to a dangerous situation, where inmates are avoiding administrative misconduct findings because a criminal standard was being applied. The criminal standard would have required time and access to forensic techniques that are simply unavailable to our members and would result in very few findings of guilt.

Being unable to impose misconduct penalties would have created an environment where more than 10,000 of our members are exposed to inmates who believe they can break the rules with impunity. This would have placed our members, the general community and even other offenders at risk.

As a result of your union raising this serious and concerning issue with the Government, a common sense bill has been passed through both houses of parliament that changes the standard of proof from beyond reasonable doubt, to the balance of probabilities standard.

Once the bill has been assented to, it will become law. We will let our members know when this occurs.

The speed that this bill has passed shows how urgently this reform was needed and we commend the Labor Minns Government for listening to our union and acting so swiftly, and the Liberal and independent politicians who supported this commonsense reform.