Page 419 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 19 February 2019
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What we now know from the royal commission is that the traditional, adversarial methods of cross-examination and testing evidence in court can yield an unfair bias against vulnerable witnesses, including child survivors of sexual abuse. The royal commission has given us a road map to eliminate that bias and to ensure that the evidence that judges and juries consider is presented in a way that aligns with what we know about survivor testimony.
The ACT has long been a leader in adopting survivor-focused criminal laws. The use of pre-recorded evidence by child survivors in child sexual assault trials was introduced here in 2008 and since then it has been expanded to all sexual assault and family violence matters. The royal commission recommended that all jurisdictions should pursue similar matters. This government will keep up its momentum to make our court process even fairer, evidence based and sensitive to the needs of survivors. We have introduced and we will continue to introduce legislation that implements the findings of that royal commission.
Across our criminal justice system, knowing the latest evidence is critical to keeping Canberra safe. We are committed to introducing laws and investing resources in methods that are proven to combat crime and deprive gangs of their financial incentives that motivate their illegal activities. That is why over this term we have strengthened police powers to set up crime scenes and preserve evidence. And that is a law that has already been used to help build cases against criminal gangs in relation to shootings. We have provided funding for the Director of Public Prosecutions to seize criminal assets. And that is a program that has resulted in millions of dollars in cash, real estate and other assets being seized in the last year, which is an amount that continues to grow.
That is why we have introduced laws to prevent gangs putting up fortifications that could be used to hinder a lawful search by police. And that is why we have invested millions of dollars into ACT Policing’s Taskforce Nemesis. We will continue to keep Canberra safe from crime with proven, hard-hitting legislation to combat organised crime and we will do it in a way that respects the rights of our whole community. We will do it in ways that are based on the evidence that is here and available more broadly.
There are many more legal and policy issues that will come before this Assembly over the next two years that will continue to challenge us to focus on human rights, on our now national legal context and, most importantly, on evidence.
The government has still more work to do in implementing its response to the select committee inquiry into the 2016 ACT election. The constitutional issues, as we discussed in the chamber last week, are absolutely central to ensuring that we deliver a fair and legally sound process leading up to the next election. As Attorney-General, I would like to reiterate that changes to our electoral framework cannot simply be accepted or negotiated between members here. Drafting changes is not simply a matter of working out what the parties in this chamber may think of the politics of election funding.
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