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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2198 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

facilitate the establishment of the national DNA database envisaged by the revised Model Forensic Procedures Bill.

Mr Speaker, the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Bill will enable the ACT to participate in the proposed national DNA database to be established as part of the CrimTrac initiative. Its provisions are very substantially based on those in the Model Forensic Procedures Bill. To ensure that the benefits of the DNA database system can be maximised, the Bill goes further than the Model Bill in certain key respects, by making it easier to collect certain samples of DNA by buccal swab and by widening the pool of convicted offenders who can be tested.

There are over three hundred DNA samples from unsolved crime scenes in the ACT which may identify the perpetrators of those offences. Some of those unsolved crimes are extremely serious and their resolution is a major priority. The Government intends to debate this Bill in August this year to ensure the ACT's participation in the national DNA database as quickly as possible. Once the Bill is passed, the DNA profiles derived from existing unsolved crime scenes in the ACT will be included on the national DNA database and will be available for comparison with DNA profiles from other crime scenes, known offenders and suspects from around Australia. Overseas experience suggests that there is a strong possibility that, as the national DNA database grows in size, the perpetrators of some of these unsolved crimes will be identified.

Although a dominant purpose of the Bill is the establishment of a DNA database system, the Bill also establishes a new legislative framework for taking a wide range of forensic samples for the purposes of criminal investigations. The range of forensic samples to which it applies includes the taking of fingerprints and other prints from body parts, dental casts, photographs, wound impressions and swabs. The Bill does not apply to taking samples solely to establish the identity of a person-the taking of identification material will continue to be carried out in accordance with Part 10 of the Crimes Act 1900.

The Bill contains key concepts which are central to understanding the operation of its provisions. Perhaps the most significant concepts are that of "intimate forensic procedure" and "non-intimate forensic procedure". Different rules apply to the circumstances in which these two types of forensic procedure may be carried out.

The Government has decided that it is appropriate to categorise the taking of a buccal swab as a non-intimate forensic procedure and in this way the Government's Bill departs from the Model Bill. As Members may be aware, a buccal swab is a simple procedure in which cells from the inside of the cheek are collected using a swab similar to a large cotton bud. It is a simple and basically painless procedure which can be performed by the person being tested if that person wishes-none of the persons clothing needs to be removed. The Government believes that it would be needlessly time consuming and expensive to obtain a court order to authorise the carrying out of the procedure should consent to the procedure be refused.

Other non-intimate forensic procedures which can be authorised by the Bill include the taking of a hair sample from a non-pubic region and the taking of

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