Tasmania’s justice department will review whether artificial intelligence was used in past parole decisions after a court invalidated a media restriction imposed on convicted murderer Susan Neill-Fraser. The Supreme Court found the condition was made without procedural fairness, raising concerns about the use of AI in decisions affecting prisoners’ fundamental freedoms.

Neill-Fraser, who was released on parole in 2022 after serving 13 years for murdering her partner Bob Chappell in 2009, had been barred from speaking publicly about her innocence or alleged wrongful conviction. Court proceedings revealed that the parole board relied on an AI-assisted document containing references to non-existent case law; a legal service is separately auditing two years of decisions, while the Attorney-General has demanded an explanation and called the error unacceptable.