On the question of whether any organisation could be charged with corporate manslaughter, Nick Vamos says that in reality, corporate manslaughter charges are highly unlikely. “The difficulty is that it is a very high legal threshold, and one of the tests which has to be met is that the corporation you are prosecuting has to owe a relevant duty of care. However, governments make decisions all the time which can lead to peoples’ deaths which is unfortunate but it’s a question of allocation of resources.” He adds, “within the Act which creates the offence of corporate manslaughter, there’s a specific carve out for any decisions which relate to public policy, political decisions or allocation of resources. In those cases, the law says that the relevant duty of care simply doesn’t arise.”

Listen below from 2:10:30.