Page 2325 - Week 08 - Thursday, 7 June 1990
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Wales. The potential difficulty which could arise there is that an indemnity offered by the Territory director would protect the informant from prosecution under Territory law but not from prosecution under New South Wales law.
I would expect that this matter would be a subject for discussion between both the Attorney and his State counterparts and the director and his State counterparts. The Opposition does not consider that any amendment to the legislation is necessary to cover the situation, but awaits with interest the Attorney's reports on those developments. I understand from discussions with the Attorney that there may be some minor technical amendments forthcoming this afternoon which cause the Opposition no difficulty. We also support the consequential provisions Bill.
MR STEFANIAK (4.45): I rise briefly, simply because I actually worked in the office that will be used initially by the Attorney-General's office for prosecutions. I commend the Attorney-General on introducing the Bill, and indeed the Opposition for supporting it. It ensures that our prosecutions can continue after 1 July. The idea of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions was first developed interstate. In the ACT we have been doing it since 1985. It is a very competent office; the system has worked well. It is good to see the Attorney-General continuing something that does work well. The staff of that office which we initially used are, I think, highly regarded within the legal community in Canberra, and indeed throughout Australia.
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (4.46), in reply: I thank my legal colleagues for their comments, and I commend the working parties on this issue, who have, interestingly, included Mr Connolly in the past. I commend those officers who put so much work into getting to this arrangement. The matters mentioned by Mr Connolly are under current purview, and there are some other matters I have discussed with Mr Connolly that we are looking at. This will be clarified in due course, and I am sure that the community will be appreciative of this legislation.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail Stage
Clauses 1 to 5, by leave, taken together, and agreed to.
Clause 6
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