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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (20 June) . . Page.. 1978 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Of course, it is quite true that, without there being a form of giving evidence which is relatively accessible to people who fear giving evidence in court - chiefly those who are alleged victims of sexual assault - the question of access to justice is certainly compromised. I believe that we would all see great benefit in the pioneering of this trial and the successful conclusion of the trial.

It is a matter of some puzzlement to me why, after two years, there has been only one very recent case in which the opportunity has been taken to give evidence by closed-circuit television. I note that the legislation itself requires that the court shall order that evidence be given through this method where there is a victim of a sexual assault or a victim in another category similar to that and where there is equipment available for closed-circuit television evidence to be given. I understand that at least one, and probably two, of the Supreme Court courtrooms have that capacity, and there ought not to be a problem of that facility not being available for people to use to give evidence. There is a requirement, in addition, that the prescribed witness should prefer to give evidence in this way before the court orders that that occur.

It may be that there is some reluctance on the part of members of the public who are in this position to give evidence in this way. There may be some difficulty in persuading people in this position that they are better off or that there may be some advantage to them in giving evidence through closed-circuit television. I would be most concerned if there was any kind of institutional inertia about this particular development. I might take this matter up with members of my department to see whether there is any problem with people not using this particular avenue to give evidence that ought to be overcome in order that the trial can proceed and give us sufficient evidence to indicate whether it is a successful method of breaking the problem of giving evidence in difficult circumstances.

I welcome members' willingness to extend this trial for a period. I hope that that will allow us to get the evidence we need to make a decision about this kind of issue. It is a difficult issue. Giving evidence by closed-circuit television is not the simple and obvious choice that it might appear to be. There are real issues about how it affects the integrity of the process of divining what has happened in a particular case, and we need to see how it operates in practice. I hope that this extension will give us the means to do that over the next couple of years.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.

Bill agreed to.

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