YB Dato’ Sri Azalina Othman Said, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for Law and Institutional Reform and I met with The Honourable Mark Dreyfus KC, Attorney-General of Australia at Parliament House in Canberra as part of the Empirical Study on Separation of the Roles of the Attorney-General and the Public Prosecutor in Malaysia.
Joining us were YB William Leong, Member of Parliament for Selayang and Chairman of the Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Human Rights, Election, and Institutional Reform, YB Datuk Awang bin Hashim, Member of Parliament for Pendang, and other senior officials from the Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department and the Attorney-General’s Chambers.
The meeting with the Attorney-General of Australia was insightful as we learnt about the various checks and balance mechanisms embedded into written law to secure the independence of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Public Prosecutor) in conducting prosecutions but yet, a delicate balancing act performed at the same time whereby the Attorney-General’s consent to prosecute is required in cases involving national security. Further, the Attorney-General in Australia is also empowered to issue directions of a general nature to the Public Prosecutor, but this is required by law to be made public.
It is interesting to note the balancing exercise performed in Australia whereby the Attorney-General, who is a cabinet minister that is directly accountable to parliament, does not make prosecutorial decisions but is allowed to intervene in the same in very exceptional circumstances and how this, when done, is made public knowledge.
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