Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Xenophon for his question. My understanding is that the private sessions will allow the royal commission to hear personal accounts directly from people affected by the child sexual abuse in a less formal setting than a hearing. One of the outcomes of the public consultation on the terms of reference for the commission was the importance of putting in place processes sensitive to the needs of victims so that they could tell their stories to the commission. Hearing these personal accounts will be important to the commission so that it can develop its recommendations for institutional reforms, which I know you have a significant interest in. As is ordinarily the case in the conduct of a royal commission, issues relating to procedural fairness for the third parties named in evidence or information received will be a matter for the royal commission to determine, and I am advised that the royal commission intends to publish draft procedures and will be inviting comments on those draft procedures.

Some features of the private sessions are that they will serve to preserve not only the privacy of persons giving information at a private session but also the reputations of people referred to in information given at the private session. In particular, the sessions will not be open to the public. Information relating to a natural person could only be used in the report of the royal commission if the information is de-identified or if the information is also given in evidence to the commission or in response to a summons, and it will be an offence to use or disclose information obtained at a private session except in certain permitted circumstances.