Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge the government has addressed a number of recommendations which I made in my additional comments, which I should say were made on the basis of submissions from technical experts in this area. I am very pleased about that. One issue that was raised during the committee hearing was the potential standing of a complainant to make submissions in relation to the admissibility of sexual experience evidence. There was quite an exchange of perspectives in that regard with respect to the agency, in particular, of a complainant, of a victim-survivor, to make submissions themselves or through a representative as opposed to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions or the prosecuting authority making submissions.

There was very strong evidence that was received from a number of organisations with particular expertise in this area. For example, Full Stop Australia submitted:

The Bill should require witnesses and complainants to be given notice of applications by the defence to admit 'sexual experience' evidence and legal standing to challenge such applications.

Women's Legal Services Australia, in the context of ground rules hearings, submitted:

In our experience, there is often a conflict between the interests of the prosecutor and the victim-survivor, and there is a need for the victim-survivor to have their own independent advocate who can act on their behalf in ground rules hearings.

Also, the National Women's Safety Alliance submitted:

… we noted how many survivors feel sidelined by the judicial process and the delegation of the prosecutorial service. Our members have collectively raised the need for Independent Legal Representation (ILR) to be made available to complainants.

I go on, and I do this because of the number of organisations who made very strong submissions in this regard. The Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy organisation, RASARA, stated:

While RASARA does not condone the admissibility of sexual experience evidence in any form, should proposed s15YCB be enacted, RASARA recommends that the Act should also be amended to include a provision which requires vulnerable adult complainants and children to be immediately granted access to free independent legal representation to represent their interests in the proceedings where an application for leave to admit sexual experience evidence is filed with the court.

Also, I should say, especially as a Queensland senator—and I note Senator Waters would agree with me in this respect—it's important to quote Ms Angela Lynch from the Executive Officer of the Queensland Sexual Assault Network, who said, when I raised this with her:

Yes; it would have to be explicit because the usual practice over hundreds of years is that victims-survivors have no standing. It's the prosecution and defence. It would be a similar approach to counselling records and the protection of counselling records. There's legislation in Queensland and also in New South Wales that specifically allows the standing of victims to have legal representation and standing—it specifically says 'has to have legal standing for the judge to hear that perspective'.

The Law Council of Australia for the record, in response to questions on notice put to them by committee members, stated:

The Law Council supports consideration of reforms to permit representation of complainants in procedural hearings, in the absence of the jury, in relation to the admissibility of certain types of evidence about the complainant. However, attention should be paid to the impact of reforms on all parties to the proceedings…

In response to this evidence, I note that the Attorney General's Department's officers were quite helpful in providing their perspective, and I would, for the record, like to quote the Attorney-General's Department's officers:

We felt it was a significant issue that would require more time and consultation before we would be able to formalise recommendations on that issue…The department is separately conducting a scoping survey with respect to a potential Commonwealth intermediary scheme. In addition, the Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry in relation to justice responses to sexual violence has also been announced. The position on this occasion was that those questions would be better addressed through those separate processes.

So, Minister, given that context, given the number of stakeholders with particular experience providing wonderful services to victims-survivors, what is the current status of the consideration of that important issue, as to whether or not victims-survivors should be given standing, whether or not complainants should be given standing, to make representations to the court with respect to the admission of particular classifications of evidence?