Page 4087 - Week 15 - Thursday, 17 December 1992

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(2) And noting also the valuable assets of Government school buildings, including those not presently used for school purposes, the Standing Committee on Social Policy examine and report on:

(a) the best use of these buildings for community and cultural use other than schooling;

(b) ways by which after hours use of the buildings may be maximised and facilitated; and

Madam Speaker, I table the document. Copies have been circulated.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

EVIDENCE (CLOSED-CIRCUIT TELEVISION) (AMENDMENT) BILL 1992

Debate resumed from 16 December 1992, on motion by Mr Connolly:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

MR HUMPHRIES (12.21): This is a relatively simple piece of legislation. By removing a sunset clause in the Evidence (Closed-Circuit Television) Act, which was passed by this Assembly last year, it provides for the facilitation of a continuing experiment, I think it is best described as, to allow children - especially children - to give evidence otherwise than in person in court. Madam Speaker, it is obvious that court appearances can be quite traumatic, even for adults. For a child, the experience sometimes can be terrifying. If one adds to this problem the difficulty of a child having to face in court a person who may be an accused molester or abuser of that child, we can see that there are very real problems, or have been very real problems in the past, with the standard court system of a person in those circumstances giving evidence face to face in a formal courtroom setting.

This Bill extends the provision in the existing Act for the innovative way of giving evidence which allows a person to give evidence otherwise than by being in the courtroom. In another room, another place, in a less threatening environment, that person can give the evidence he or she wants to give without feeling the same pressures that exist in a courtroom. The debate about closed-circuit television is not over, and certainly will not be over with the passage of this Bill. There are a number of issues surrounding it and they deserve to be thoroughly examined; but it is incumbent on us, I think, to acknowledge that there appears to be some very positive feedback about the use of closed-circuit television so far in this Territory. It is an experiment that is being watched very closely, I understand, by other States, and I believe that it is incumbent on us to make sure that that experiment does not stop now.

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