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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 8 Hansard (29 October) . . Page.. 2507 ..


MR MOORE (continuing):

Page 6, line 23, clause 15, proposed new section 13AG, omit the section, substitute the following section:

" `13AG. Admissibility of evidence

`(1) The following are not admissible as evidence in proceedings before a court, tribunal, board or person:

(a) an oral statement made in proceedings before an approved private sector committee;

(b) a document produced to an approved private sector committee, to the extent that it was prepared solely for the purposes of the committee;

(c) a document prepared by an approved private sector committee.

`(2) In this section -

"document" includes -

(a) any part of a document;

(b) any copy, reproduction or duplicate of a document or of any part of a document; and

(c) any part of such a copy, reproduction or duplicate.'.".

I present a supplementary explanatory memorandum to the Bill. These amendments, which respond to the scrutiny of Bills committee, were debated at length at the in-principle stage of the legislation. Mr Stanhope indicated that these amendments deal with the fourth area dealt with by the scrutiny of Bills committee. The other three areas were about whether this Bill had the appropriate balance between health outcomes and the infringement on civil liberties.

I concede that it is a matter of judgment as to whether the balance is right and hope that we have the support from the Assembly to ensure that we get better health outcomes. Remember that the infringement on civil liberties is very narrow. It is very tight. It is tied specifically to the quality assurance committees of the hospitals and applies only in those circumstances. Nevertheless, it is a matter of judgment. I hope that members will join the Government in ensuring that we can improve the health systems within our hospitals by this approach.


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