Page 1587 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 17 May 1994
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A number of members have had the opportunity over the years to speak to people like Sergeant Fiona Crombie, who is the head of the Sexual Assault Unit here in Canberra with the AFP. It is a very common perception that women who, clearly, have been assaulted, who present in a bruised and bloodied state, where there is no question but that there was a violent sexual assault or a violent rape, are reluctant to proceed to take the matter to prosecution.
Mrs Grassby: Or to report it.
MR CONNOLLY: Yes, Mrs Grassby. They report the matter; they present to police. Police will attend at the hospital. You often hear allegations of the frivolous complaint of rape. We are not talking about that here. We are talking about a situation where, clearly, there has been a violent assault. Women will say, "Can you guarantee that we will have success? Can you guarantee that he will not get away with it?". Of course, police cannot guarantee that, because that is the nature of the system. In so many cases women are fearful that they will be the ones who are on trial. They will be humiliated. They will be dragged, again and again, through the process. Their sexual history and their personal morality will be displayed through the court. They will be attacked, but they will not prosecute the matter. A system of justice where half of the community feel that if they are attacked they cannot get justice is not a system of justice that is delivering a good product to this community.
I have referred to the ACT Community Law Reform Committee a reference on the way we prosecute sexual assault and rape in this Territory. There has been a lot of reform of the substantive law in recent years in Australia; but the criticism of the process and procedure remains, and it is uniform in every jurisdiction. That reference to the Community Law Reform Committee on procedure is, again, a landmark reference. I am not seeking to pre-empt the work of the committee, but I very firmly believe that one of the recommendations will be that adult survivors of violent sexual assault also have the option of video evidence. When that recommendation is brought before this Assembly - I am not sure when that will be; there is a lot of work for the committee to do - I would hope that this law will have been in place for some time. If we are to consider taking the next step, that may provide the opportunity to review how it is going, as Ms Szuty and Mr Humphries have suggested.
Madam Speaker, this will not be the end of the story on the extension of access to video evidence. On the contrary, I think this will be the first step. It is a bold step in the sense that we are now taking this one step further and putting it before superior courts, putting it into jury trials. It is a step which will be watched with great interest. I will not be surprised if the Australian Law Reform Commission or people like the Institute of Criminology take an interest in what is going on. We may thereby benefit by some independent research. It is the first step and I would hope that this Assembly, which has done quite a lot in developing a reputation for landmark law reform, might be prepared to come with me on the next step and extend this to adult survivors. I think we should give the Community Law Reform Committee the opportunity to continue with their work on that reference, but I do firmly believe that this will be one of the recommendations, and that will provide the opportunity.
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