Page 5278 - Week 16 - Thursday, 28 November 1991
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Amendments agreed to.
Clause, as amended, agreed to.
Clauses 84 and 85 taken together
MR STEVENSON (4.39), by leave: I move:
Page 34, line 15, subclause (1), after "The Commissioner may", insert ", if he or she believes, on reasonable grounds, that it is necessary or desirable in the circumstances,".
Page 34, line 31, heading to Division 3, omit "Decisions", substitute "Directions".
Clause 84 talks about the commissioner prohibiting publication of evidence. I can certainly understand where that would be valuable. There are certain personal details that could be presented before any court that should not be published, particularly if the court so directs. However, subclause 84(1) says:
The Commissioner may direct that -
It goes on to say that evidence can be suppressed. My amendment seeks to add, after "The Commissioner may", the words "if he or she believes, on reasonable grounds, that it is necessary or desirable in the circumstances,". Once again, this is a reasonableness clause. Why should there not be a requirement for the commissioner to act on reasonable grounds or to do something that is necessary in the circumstances?
As for clause 85, it is just a brief point. The heading is "Interim decisions". As the clause talks about directions rather than decisions, "Interim directions" would be a better title.
As I said, it could well be valid for some evidence to be suppressed. However, there is a possibility that the commissioner may suppress evidence that people should get to hear about. There may be something that occurs within the commission that a person accused of certain things feels should be brought to the attention of the community because of an injustice, but clause 84 allows the commissioner to suppress the right of that individual to make that known to other people in the community. One would wonder whether one of the reasons why some things have happened is that we do not know because the evidence has been suppressed.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (4.41): Mr Speaker, I will just once respond to this plethora of proposals that Mr Stevenson has about adding "on reasonable grounds" or "if he or she believes on reasonable grounds that it is necessary or desirable in the circumstances", and so forth. Throughout this Bill, as throughout any Act,
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