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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (29 June) . . Page.. 2201 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Part 2.9 deals with the admissibility of evidence relating to forensic procedures carried out under the Bill. It contains provisions which safeguard the integrity of the processes set down in the Bill by rendering inadmissible improperly collected or improperly retained information. The intention is to ensure that law enforcement authorities are made aware that improperly obtained evidence is not used to prejudice the interests of the person from whom it was obtained.

The destruction of forensic material obtained under the Bill is required in certain circumstances which are set out in Part 2.10. The purpose of these provisions is to ensure that information obtained from forensic procedures cannot be used inappropriately. Destruction is required if a court order for a forensic procedure is overturned and if the conviction of a serious offender is overturned or quashed.

For suspects, the forensic material must be destroyed if they are acquitted or if no proceedings are instituted against them within 1 year or no warrant for apprehension of the suspect is issued within 1 year. There is a limited capacity to obtain an extension of the retention period by court order.

Forensic material must also be destroyed if a court rules that evidence relating to that material is inadmissible. There are strict penalties for failing to destroy forensic material which is required to be destroyed by law.

The Bill enables the establishment of the DNA database system under Part 2.11. The database system is to comprise a number of indexes, in which DNA profiles derived from DNA samples will be recorded.

The indexes reflect the sources from which the DNA profiles were obtained. The indexes will include a crime scene index, a suspects index and a statistical index. There will be two indexes for volunteers-one will contain profiles from samples provided for limited purposes only, while the other will contain profiles from samples provided for unlimited purposes.

Members should note that a DNA profile does not consist of the whole DNA sequence for a person-the profile is a computer-gene rated sequence based on certain loci of the DNA within a cell and relates only to what is known as "junk DNA".

The database will enable the profiles contained in an index to be compared with the profiles in other indexes, subject to the rules about "permissible matching" set out in proposed section 97. Impermissible matching is an offence.

The remaining provisions of the Bill deal with technical and operational matters, many of which are intended to resolve disputes between the persons being tested and law enforcement agencies and to ensure that the rights of those persons are protected from abuse or coercion.

The safeguards in the Bill include extensive requirements for recording the giving of information, the giving of informed consent and the carrying out of procedures. The Bill makes it clear that if the police are required to do something "where practicable", the prosecution bears the responsibility of establishing that it was not practicable to do that thing. There are also rights

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