Page 2950 - Week 07 - Thursday, 30 June 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Title read by Clerk.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development, Minister for Territory and Municipal Services and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (10.29): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
Today I present the second in a series of bills to be presented this year to reform the law of evidence in the territory. It was originally proposed that I would also be presenting the third bill of the evidence reforms in these June sittings. The third bill was intended to implement aspects of the model evidence law which were not part of the commonwealth law. However, I can advise the Assembly the government has decided that it is appropriate to delay presentation of this third bill until the August sittings this year.
The government has been required to take into account recent developments in journalist shield laws in the commonwealth and is considering incorporating the new commonwealth journalist privilege in this third bill. As the third bill was subject to extensive consultation with stakeholders prior to these developments, delaying presentation of the bill until August will allow time to consult further with stakeholders in relation to the journalist privilege issue.
As members may remember, in March this year the Assembly passed the Evidence Bill 2011. The passage of that bill marked an important day for self-government, creating the ACT’s first Evidence Act since self-government. It also represented a move towards ceasing the operation of commonwealth evidence legislation in the territory. The Evidence Act 2011, implementing model uniform evidence law, has now been notified and is awaiting commencement. It is intended that all of the bills will commence simultaneously early in 2012.
The rules of evidence that have been implemented in the territory through the model law are general in their application. Therefore, it is necessary for the ACT and other uniform evidence jurisdictions to supplement their evidence acts with specific legislation that deals with matters which fall outside the scope of the model laws.
In the ACT currently most evidentiary matters which fall outside scope are contained in the Evidence Act 1971 and the Evidence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1991. As part of the evidence reforms, the Evidence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1991 will be retained and will become the primary source of evidentiary matters which are not contained in the territory’s Evidence Act. The Evidence Act 1971, which largely contains provisions that duplicate those in the Evidence Act, will be repealed.
Mr Speaker, the purpose of the bill I am presenting today is to make amendments to the Evidence (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1991. In summary, the amendments update, consolidate and reorganise the act. More substantively, they also restrict access to sexual assault counselling communications in civil proceedings. Examples of the types of amendments that have been made to update the act in accordance with
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video