House of Assembly Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1) 53 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Child Protection Child Protection Mr MARSHALL House of Assembly Dunstan Leader of the Opposition Child Protection Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:41): Yes, sir. Will the government now reconsider the recommendation of former chief justice Brian Martin regarding the removal of automatic suppression orders for sexual offences? The Hon. J.R. RAU House of Assembly Enfield Deputy Premier Attorney-General Minister for Justice Reform Minister for Planning Minister for Housing and Urban Development Minister for Industrial Relations Child Protection The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice Reform, Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Urban Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (14:41): This is a matter which we debated in this house 18 months or two years ago; it was a matter of some considerable discussion there. What was arrived at was an amendment to the then existing section 71A of the Evidence Act. The previous position, Mr Speaker, as you would be able to recall, was that those orders were mandatory and could not be changed. The parliament said, 'Look, we accept that there may be circumstances, in the public interest, when that mandatory maintenance of a suppression order is not in the public interest and should be varied, and a judge should be able to make that variation.' We amended the law to enable that to happen, and that is where it should be.