The Commission of Inquiry into Forensic DNA testing in Queensland has certainly highlighted what can happen when strict and necessary protocols which ensure absolute adherence to set procedures, are tampered with, and watered down, to save a few bucks.
Because in the scheme of things, the money which the "protocol breaches" saved QLD Health's budget, which was the catalyst for the large scale forensic DNA testing stuff up, is peanuts. Less than a million dollars in total.
Certainly not a cost saving that was worth compromising hundreds of criminal cases which hinged or still hinge on forensic DNA evidence which, miniscule as it might have been, was inexplicably discarded and forgotten about by the not so think-tanks at QLD Health, who obviously have no idea about the evidential relevance in criminal investigations of even one tiny speck of DNA.
Acting QLD Health director-general Shaun Drummond seems to be genuinely miffed by what has already been revealed in the interim report, which categorically outlines and substantiates that QLD Health and the Queensland Police Service had a deal in place to essentially "get rid" of small samples of DNA.
Question is - who in their right mind at QLD Health or within QPS would not take the position that any DNA evidence whatsoever is potentially worth gold in terms of its investigative worth for police?
Even if it cost QLD Health, and hence, the taxpayers of Queensland, ten million dollars, it would have been worth having every single DNA sample tested that wasn't tested.
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