Noticeboard
| Author | Jeremy Gans |
| Published date | 01 October 2016 |
| Date | 01 October 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1365712716657722 |
| Subject Matter | Noticeboard |
Noticeboard
Jeremy Gans
University of Melbourne, Australia
Law reform and source material
Communication assistance—Australia
Facilitating Equal Access to Justice: An Intermediary/Communication Assistant Scheme for Tasmania? Tasmania
Law Reform Institute, Issues Paper No. 22, May 2016. Available at: http://www.utas.edu.au/__data/
assets/pdf_file/0008/831698/Intermediaries_IP_05_A4print_sec.pdf.
This consultation paper from Tasmania’s peak law reform body seeks community input on a
reference examining special measures to support vulnerable victims and witnesses through the
criminal justice process. Issues where input is sought include: the aptness of the term ‘complex
communication needs’ to denote people who need communication assistance; the barriers such
people face in dealing with police, lawyers and courts, and to identifying such people; whether
existing police guidelines on disabilities should be implemented as legislation and various questions
about such implementation; the adequacy of existing legislation; and the need for, scope and
availability of any communication assistance scheme.
Counselling privilege—Australia
Sexual Assault Counselling Privilege. Queensland Department of Justice and Attorney-General,
Consultation Paper, March 2016. Available at: https://publications.qld.gov.au/dataset/consultation-paper-
on-sexual-assault-counselling-privilege/resource/cf6d4a22-2c4a-47a3-ada6-71400f3f9289.
This consultation paper is a response to a recommendation by a family violence taskforce for
Queensland to implement a sexual assault counselling privilege modelled on laws adopted in New
South Wales. The paper notes that Queensland is the only Australian jurisdiction that lacks such a
privilege and that a court has rejected a constitutional challenge to the NSW model, which provides
an absolute privilege for preliminary proceedings and a qualified privilege for trials. Consultation
questions include how to define victims, counsellors and protected communications; whether the
absolute preliminary hearing privilege should apply in committals and all bail hearings, and
whether the qualified trial privilege should apply in non-sexual assault trials; rules for waiver and
prosecutorial disclosure; and the interaction of the privilege with rules on complaints, protected
witnesses and hypnosis.
Corresponding author:
Jeremy Gans, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, 185 Pelham Street, Carlton, Melbourne, Victoria 3052, Australia.
Email: Jeremy.Gans@unimelb.edu.au
The International Journalof
Evidence & Proof
2016, Vol. 20(4) 367–369
ªThe Author(s) 2016
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1365712716657722
epj.sagepub.com
To continue reading
Request your trial