Victorians will be able to appeal against a coroner's refusal to hold or reopen an inquest under new laws to be introduced by the state government.
Attorney-General Robert Clark has received cabinet approval to change the Coroners Act and overturn provisions introduced by the former Labor government in 2008 that prevented Supreme Court challenges to a coroner's decision other than on the narrow grounds of points of law.
The proposed changes will give people greater powers to legally challenge decisions by the state coroner and allow them to apply to the Supreme Court to appeal a coroner's decision not to hold an inquest into a death or a refusal to reopen an inquest.
The new laws could trigger fresh applications for high-profile inquests to be reopened.
Earlier this month the coroner ruled out an inquest on gangland boss Carl Williams, who was murdered in the maximum-security Barwon Prison in 2010. Williams' family had been pushing for an inquest and if these changes are introduced, they could have grounds to appeal the decision.
Lawyers representing former policeman Denis Tanner have lobbied Mr Clark's office over the appeal provisions in the Coroners Act.
In 2012, Mr Tanner abandoned a bid to have the inquest into his sister-in-law Jennifer Tanner's 1984 shooting death reopened because the 2008 changes to the act prevented him from applying to the Supreme Court to have what he believed was new evidence introduced.
A 1998 coronial inquest into Ms Tanner's death named the former policeman as her killer. Mr Tanner has always denied murdering her and has never been charged.
The Saturday Age is also aware that relatives of former members of the Melbourne cult known as "The Family" who have died in suspicious circumstances have also unsuccessfully sought to have coronial inquests reopened.
Mr Clark told The Saturday Age the government would legislate to restore a right to appeal to the Supreme Court against a coroner's decision not to hold an inquest or to reopen an inquest.
He said the changes were expected to be in place by the end of the year and would ensure the Coroner's Act ''is more in accord with the original recommendations'' made in a 2006 report by the Victorian Parliamentary Law Reform Committee.
That report made 138 recommendations to overhaul the coronial process. It recommended keeping the right to allow coroners' decisions to be appealed in the Supreme Court.
But the former Labor government did not act on this recommendation when it amended the act in 2008.
Instead, in circumstances that have never been explained to the public, the act was changed to limit Supreme Court appeals of coroners' decisions to points of law.
This severely curtailed the ability of people to seek legal review of the coronial process and meant only the state coroner could decide on appeals against decisions made by the Coroners Court.
In 2012, Mr Tanner told a Melbourne newspaper he believed the 2008 changes to the act limiting rights of appeal were made to harm his attempts to clear his name.
The initial inquest into Jennifer Tanner's death delivered an open finding. A second inquest resulted in Mr Tanner being named as her killer.
