Mr. Dave O'Connell:

I have been in this role for 15 years. We are down by almost half the staff we had when I started in this role. The Senator is right - in any democracy, covering courts and councils in particular takes bodies. It cannot be done in any other way. The short answer is you end up pulling your punches because you simply cannot afford to take chances. Most if not all of the cases we have are not to do with major investigations we have undertaken but with genuine mistakes. That is the pressure of work we are under.