Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge all the speakers on this important bill and all of their contributions. This is a really important change, and I really want to thank everyone who has contributed.

I too am going to speak on the Crimes Amendment (Strengthening the Criminal Justice Response to Sexual Violence) Bill 2024. As the Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence in the Albanese government, I'm very proud to be here today supporting this very comprehensive suite of reforms which stakeholders, experts and victims-survivors have been calling for. Many people right throughout the community—so many people—have been calling for this for a long period of time. I know I and my colleagues are all proud to be delivering this suite of measures to address these issues.

Our government is deeply committed to improving criminal justice responses to sexual assault. This means ensuring the criminal justice system supports vulnerable people at all stages of the criminal justice process. The bill before us today will improve the experience of victims-survivors of sexual violence in our justice system and builds on the very extensive work of the Albanese government to strengthen those criminal justice responses to sexual assault.

In our 2023-24 budget, our government committed $14.7 million to strengthen the way the justice system responds to sexual assault. This includes an Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry into justice responses to sexual violence, a lived experience expert advisory group to support that inquiry and a ministerial led national roundtable to drive cross-sector collaboration.

This bill seeks to amend the Crimes Act 1914 to strengthen protections for vulnerable persons involved in Commonwealth criminal proceedings, building on our government's extensive reforms in this space. In addition, the bill implements a number of outstanding recommendations from the 2017 final report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and supports the National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse.

Importantly, this bill expands the circumstances in which vulnerable people who are involved in court proceedings as complainants or witnesses are afforded enhanced protections. It makes evidence about sexual reputation inadmissible for all victims-survivors of child sexual abuse and places greater restrictions on evidence relating to a person's sexual experience. It addresses barriers that may deter vulnerable people from giving evidence by introducing evidence recording hearings and allowing those hearings to be used in subsequent trials and retrials. It ensures victims-survivors can speak out about their experiences if they wish to do so by clarifying that they may publish self-identifying information or give their informed consent to a third party, such as a media organisation, to publish that information. They are able to do that if they want to.

To more comprehensively protect vulnerable persons, this bill will expand the range of offences covered by existing protections for vulnerable persons, including crimes against humanity and drug offences involving children. In recognising that it can take many, many years for people to disclose the abuse that has occurred, it will also ensure that adult complainants are able to access vulnerable witness protections for offences that occurred when they were children. As we know, often it as many years later that people are able to express what has happened to them.

Importantly, this bill also introduces a number of measures to address the admissibility of evidence concerning vulnerable people. Any evidence about a vulnerable person's sexual reputation will be made inadmissible. The bill also restricts the admissibility of sexual experience of vulnerable adult complainants unless the court grants leave and considers specific criteria, including that the evidence is substantially relevant to the facts at issue. It has to have relevance. The court must also give regard to whether its probative value outweighs any distress, humiliation or embarrassment to that vulnerable person, because it's so important that we do not retraumatise people through victim-blaming. It cannot happen.

The bill will also address barriers that may in fact deter witnesses from actually giving evidence. The new measures empower a court in some cases to order an evidence recording hearing for a vulnerable person to give evidence. It also requires all evidence given by that person outside of an evidence recording hearing, including on cross-examination, to be recorded so that it may be used in later proceedings. These amendments are another way to reduce the risk of retraumatising victims-survivors that may have to provide evidence multiple times in relation to the same matter and ensures those vulnerable persons can give evidence in a safe and controlled environment and do not have to repeat it over and over and be retraumatised by that.

The bill supports the voices of victims-survivors by ensuring they're empowered to speak about their experiences if they choose to do so. The bill makes clear the current restriction on publishing material that identifies another person as a child witness, child complainant or vulnerable adult complainant in a proceeding does not apply to a person who publishes material that identifies themselves. The bill will also remove the requirement for the proceedings to be finalised before such self-publication may occur. This means victims-survivors are supported to speak out should they wish to do so, giving them agency, power and control over their lives and experiences.

The reforms in this bill have been rightly welcomed by many advocacy groups around the country. The CEO of Rape & Sexual Assault Research & Advocacy, Rachael Burgin, said these amendments are:

… a necessary shift of focus away from victims of crime and onto the actions of the accused.

The National Women's Safety Alliance have also welcomed the changes, acknowledging the extensive consultation undertaken and our government's commitment to tangible and real change in the criminal justice system. I really want to commend and thank all of these groups for their involvement in the ongoing consultation period and thank them for the work that they do in highlighting the voices of victims-survivors right across the country.

These reforms support victims-survivors in engaging with the Commonwealth criminal justice system. It is absolutely crucial that victims-survivors are given support and confidence that the justice system will deliver equitable and persistent outcomes whilst always being cognisant of minimising the risk of retraumatisation through the justice process, because we know how incredibly challenging and difficult that can be. Our Attorney-General has ensured that these reforms have been developed in close consultation with victims-survivors, and I would like to acknowledge any victims-survivors who may be listening today. Our government knows how vital it is that the voices of those victims-survivors are listened to and are heard right throughout all portfolios that may impact them, and we will continue to make sure that they are at the centre of all the decision-making. These voices are very central to our efforts. I offer my acknowledgement and thanks to those who have shared their experiences as a platform for change. We have listened, and we continue to listen. I also particularly want to thank the Attorney-General for his tireless dedication to this cause.

Importantly, the amendments brought before the House today directly align with our National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-32 and the First Action Plan 2023-2027. Specifically, action 9 of the First Action Plan aims to ensure justice systems are safe, accessible and easier for victims-survivors to navigate. We know that initiatives in the justice system can create change through providing appropriate survivor-centred justice responses, holding perpetrators to account and responding to all victims-survivors, including children and young people, by listening, acting and responding in a trauma informed way.

Our government has invested $2.3 billion across the past two budgets to deliver ambitious reforms to address the drivers of family, domestic and sexual violence, and to ensure victims-survivors have the support they need and require. In our 2023-24 budget we also committed funding for a number of sexual violence prevention initiatives, including $8.2 million to design, deliver and evaluate multiple trials to prevent sexual violence and harm; $3.5 million to support Teach Us Consent to develop resources for young people aged 16 and above; and $6.5 million to work with states and territories to strengthen and harmonise sexual assault and consent laws and improve criminal justice responses for victims-survivors. And, of course, we appointed the nations first Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner, Micaela Cronin, to ensure that the diversity of lived experiences is heard and constantly raised and championed at a national level.

Today's bill is another example of a further significant step being taken by the Commonwealth to address these very important issues within our criminal justice system and ensure that those voices of victims-survivors are central to that. I commend the bill to the House.

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