Captain Peacock,
Australia is going the way of Japan, Greece, New Zealand and Taiwan to name a few. All these countries arrest pilots that have had incidents. In New Zealand, they use FDR recordings in criminal proceedings. (Dash 8)
Wrong, particularly in your reference to New Zealand. The NZ Police issued a warrant to search and obtain the CVR and FDR from TAIC after TAIC had completed its investigation in 1997. TAIC appealed, but lost, because even though New Zealand was a Contracting State to the Chicago Convention, it had not ratified the provisions of Annex 13 to protect the CVR and FDR into New Zealand law.
It was also discovered that there was no provision for the carriage of CVRs at that time of the Dash 8 accident. TAIC, NZ Department of Transport, and the NZ airline industry lobbied the government to change the law, and that was achieved in 1999.
New Zealand now has protection for CV and FD recordings and they can't be used in criminal investigations without aspects of public interest being considered.
In Australia, we prosecute pilots based on confidential reports.
Yes, and that seems reasonable, particularly if the matter involves 'the public interest and safety' (as was noted by the Tasmanian Supreme Court Judge when granting a permanent stay on the proceedings to which you are referring).
But the same Supreme Court Judge also noted that public interest and safety was
not being served in the QF737 Launceston matter, because it involved a prosecution some six years after the event was
alleged to have occurred.