Notwithstanding - in the interest of both parties and by consent surely an application could be made by either side to the judge. Anyway it is what it is..

https://www.armstronglegal.com.au/criminal-law/act/court-processes/criminal-trials-by-judge-alone/

Criminal Trials by Judge Alone (ACT)

A criminal defendant in Canberra was recently acquitted of seven serious sex offences in a case run without a jury. While the usual procedure for sexual offences is to hold a jury trial, this has been varied due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the period of the COVID-19 emergency, defendants facing charges that are usually excluded from the election for a trial by judge alone will have the opportunity to make such an election.

Election for trial by judge alone

In the past, the ACT allowed defendants charged with sexual assaults to elect to be tried by a judge alone. However, in recent years, the ACT Government decreed that sexual-assault matters were to be decided by a jury, ending the option of electing for a judge alone trial in these matters. Sexual assault matters joined murder and other serious charges on a schedule of offences excluded from judge