Message from the Secretary
I am pleased to present the 2024–25 Annual Report of the Department of Justice, my first as Secretary of the Department, which summarises the wide range of work undertaken across all areas of the Department over the last 12 months.
Throughout 2024–25 the Department, along with other government agencies, continued to focus strongly on the safety and wellbeing of children and young people. This has included continuing to progress recommendations from the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings (Commission of Inquiry), with 17 of the 36 recommendations assigned to the Department of Justice completed as of 30 June 2025. This has included work to lead the whole of government legislative program in response to the Commission of Inquiry, providing support and information to the various independent reviews that have begun following the Commission of Inquiry, and leading the joint referral and review team to ensure that all matters have been referred to relevant authorities.
There has also been significant work undertaken to progress our commitment to make the Department of Justice a child and youth safe organisation. This has included developing new policies and procedures, rolling out training for staff on their child safety and professional conduct obligations, embedding child safety requirements into recruitment, and establishing mechanisms for reporting concerns about unacceptable behaviour towards children and young people. While we have undoubtedly made some good progress, this work will continue to be a focus for the Department in 2025–26 and beyond.
During 2024–25 the Department achieved a significant milestone in our efforts to enhance our services and better support the community and our staff. The implementation of the new Justice Support Services structure brings together several previously separate areas of the Department that provide services and support to victims of crime, people experiencing family violence, victim-survivors of child sexual abuse, and vulnerable adults and children. Justice Support Services unites the areas of the Department that share this focus in order to provide consistent, co-ordinated and streamlined service delivery. It also provides greater support for the staff delivering these services which in turn enables them to achieve their mission to promote and protect the rights and interests of people who access or rely on its services. While still in the early stages, the new structure is already delivering benefits, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
Once again the Department’s Strategic Legislation and Policy team developed a significant number of the Bills introduced to Tasmania’s Parliament, including the policy development and stakeholder consultation processes which inform the development of legislation. This included preparing 23 Bills that were introduced to Parliament during the year and supporting Ministers and the Parliament through the debate. This work often involves managing time pressures and stakeholder interests while ensuring that the Bills we develop will operate as intended. I am proud that our team has developed robust processes and positive relationships with key stakeholders to support this work, and their approach is widely respected.
We also continued to progress several technology and infrastructure projects during 2024–25. The Department’s major ICT project Astria went live with its first significant roll out in April this year, providing enhanced functionality for the Tasmania Prison Service and Community Corrections. PlanBuild Tasmania also reached a milestone with application services going live for the first local government area in August 2024. At the same time, we have continued to progress new and upgraded infrastructure projects across Courts and Corrections. A new kitchen on the Risdon Prison site is progressing well, with construction on track to be completed at the end of 2025; planning for a new maximum security accommodation unit is progressing; and security upgrades across multiple facilities are underway. Planning for the new Burnie Court Complex is also on track, with detailed designs progressing, a development application due to be submitted in the first quarter of 2025–26 and preparatory works starting on the site.
Throughout 2024–25 we increased our emphasis on governance, risk management and security management. This included beginning a wide-ranging governance review which will look at the governance bodies and processes we have in place and make recommendations for improvement. We have also increased our focus on strategic risk management, developing a Risk Management Strategy 2025–28 and associated action plan and implementing a new Fraud and Corruption Control Plan and Policy which has been supported by training for staff. We have also increased our commitment to cybersecurity, continuing to upgrade our threat protection and response capabilities and upskill our people to identify the growing threats that the Department faces. This has also formed part of our work to achieve compliance with the Tasmanian Protective Security Policy Framework, which aims to protect Tasmanian Government information, people and assets.
In addition to the headline projects and initiatives I have noted above, there is also an incredible amount of work that occurs in all areas of the Department to deliver our business as usual activity. In 2024–25 this has included operating Tasmania’s prisons, supervising offenders in the community, inspecting workplace safety at more than 1,650 workplaces, collecting over $25 million in monetary penalties and processing almost 17,400 rental bond claims.
These are core services that the Tasmanian community relies upon us to deliver in a timely manner and to a high standard. In many areas we are seeing increased demand for these services, which requires us to innovate and identify ways that we can manage this growing workload. I am proud of the way that our people have responded to this challenge.
We have continued to remain agile in the face of change with a number of movements in Ministerial responsibilities during 2024–25 and an unexpected House of Assembly election being called for 19 July 2025. All of these have impacted on the Department’s work to varying degrees, but our staff have adapted and continued to demonstrate commitment and professionalism throughout.
On that note, it would be remiss of me to not acknowledge our hardworking staff in all areas of the Department. The commitment and expertise of our staff is central to the work that we do and the services that we deliver to the Tasmanian community. Without their contributions we would not be able to pursue our aim of achieving a safe, fair and just Tasmania. I am incredibly proud to lead such a capable and dedicated team of people and would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank them for their efforts.
I would particularly like to thank those individuals who have held or acted in leadership roles within the Department during 2024–25, including our four Deputy Secretaries, Output Managers and Statutory Office holders. The demands on these individuals continue to grow, but their dedication, leadership and contributions in their areas of expertise are immense and greatly appreciated.
There have been several changes in these leadership roles during 2024–25, as we farewelled:
- Ginna Webster, Secretary
- Rod Wise, Deputy Secretary Corrective Services
- Ian Thomas, Director of Prisons
- Sarah Bolt, Anti-Discrimination Commissioner
- David Byrne, Chief Information Officer.
I would like to acknowledge these people who have left the Department, either for new opportunities or a well-earned change of pace as they enter retirement. I also welcome those who have taken on new or varied leadership roles over the last 12 months, and I look forward to working with you in your new positions.
The 2024–25 State Budget specifically funded the Department of Justice to deliver a range of services, projects and initiatives. These included 2024 election commitments and funding to progress actions in response to the Commission of Inquiry and other priorities. Updates on the progress of these funded initiatives are included in relevant sections throughout this report.
Additional information on all the initiatives I have referred to above, along with qualitative and quantitative performance reports, financial statements and information required to be published to meet a range of compliance obligations, is provided throughout the subsequent sections of this annual report, which I commend to you.
Kristy Bourne
Secretary
Department of Justice
29 September 2025
About Us
Here is a snapshot of our Department as at 30 June 2025. Download our Annual Report from the link below to read about us in more detail.
Quick facts
In 2024–25 the Department:
- Had staff in more than 40 office/building locations across the State.
- Awarded 37 contracts with a total value of 65.1 million – 27 of these, valued at more than $64 million, went to Tasmanian businesses.
- Administered more than 230 pieces of legislation across 3 portfolio areas.
- Collected more than $25.9 million in fines and finalised more than 146,700 debts.
- Developed 23 Bills that were either introduced into, debated, or passed by Parliament, and remade 22 sets of regulations.
People
1,884 staff equating to 1,783.7 full time equivalents (FTE)
1,087 women
- 795 female full-time staff
- 292 female part time staff
791 men
- 741 male full-time staff
- 50 male part-time/casual staff
*Note: 6 employees identify as non-binary, use a different term to describe their gender, or have not disclosed their gender.
Age
- 12% are aged under 30
- 25% are aged between 30 and 39
- 24% are aged between 40 and 49
- 27% are aged between 50 and 59
- 12% are aged 60 and over
Achievements
Highlights amongst the range of projects and initiatives progressed across the Department during the 2024-25 reporting period include:
Establishment of the new Justice Support Services Output structure to promote and protect the rights and interests of people who access or rely on its services.
Implementing the first stage of the RWVP expansion project which removed two exemption categories and strengthened the protections in place for vulnerable people.
Go live of the first major suite of Astria functionality within the Tasmania Prison Service and Community Corrections.
Progressed work to meaningfully embed the Child and Youth Safe Organisations Framework across the Department.
Collaborated with the Department of Police, Fire and Emergency Management to deliver coercive control training to over 2,000 staff from government and non-government organisations.
Progressed 23 Bills across a broad range of issues which were tabled and/or debated by the Tasmanian Parliament.
Continued to improve our court and prison infrastructure with work progressing to deliver the new Burnie Court Complex, Risdon Prison Kitchen and upgrade projects within the Tasmania Prison Service.
Implementing seven of the 20 Phase 2 Commission of Inquiry recommendations in advance of the 30 June 2026 due date.
Implementation of the Application Services functionality within PlanBuild Tasmania for planning, building, plumbing, TasWater, and Heritage Tasmania applications within the City of Hobart local government area.
Continuing to strengthen the governance, risk management, protective security and cybersecurity processes, systems and structures in place across the Department.
Collected almost $26 million in monetary penalties on behalf of government.
Activating four full body scanners across Tasmania Prison Service facilities to increase safety and security, and minimise the need for invasive personal searches.
Supported the establishment of the Office of the Child Safety Reform Implementation Monitor who will oversee, evaluate and report on the Government’s implementation of child safety reform.
Implemented an updated staffing strategy at the Risdon Prison Complex to improve access to services and reduce the impact of lockdowns.
Downloads
Department of Justice Annual Report 2024-25 (PDF, 3.8 MB)
Contact communications@justice.tas.gov.au for more information.
Visit the National Library of Australia for earlier annual reports.
PDFs require a PDF reader to be viewed. Follow this link to download a PDF reader or contact us if you would like to request the publication in an alternative format.