Kilkenny must act to restore confidence in suppression laws

March 7, 2026 — 5:00am

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“I doubt that many people’s mental health is in good condition after being charged with serious crimes.”

This remark by retired Supreme Court judge Betty King, in a piece she wrote for The Age, goes to the heart of a growing issue in Victoria: the proliferation of suppression orders granted in courts on “mental health grounds” in cases of public interest.

On Wednesday, 10 of the state’s leading media organisations, including The Age, and the Melbourne Press Club sent a letter to Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny calling for action to improve the open administration of justice. In the letter, media outlets argued that one line in the 2013 Open Courts Act has had unintended consequences and requires a small but significant revision.

That line, in section 18 of the act, states that a suppression order may be made “to protect the safety of any person”. As Robert Clark, who as attorney-general in 2013 introduced the act, has said: “The safety ground for a suppression order was about protecting people from threats of violence or similar, not about claims of psychological distress.”

Yet in recent years, increasing numbers of high-profile defendants are relying on psychiatric evaluations commissioned by their lawyers to argue that “safety”........

© The Age