EVIDENCE (IDENTIFICATION) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 6 February 2013.)

The Hon. M. PARNELL (18:00): I will be brief. We gave this bill serious consideration back in 2011. We attended briefings, we discussed the bill with academics from the university and with the Commissioner for Victims' Rights and, collectively, this chamber agreed that more work was needed on the mechanics of identification evidence. We gave the government a clear invitation to go away and come back with improved mechanics, and we would consider the bill further.

The government has decided to come back, two years later, with exactly the same bill that we defeated last time, and it is going to get from the Greens exactly the same treatment that it got last time, except this time we will probably oppose it at the second reading, unless the government gives a clear indication that the concerns we put on the record two years ago are going to be addressed.

I am disappointed that that is the approach the government has taken, bringing back an identical bill with no extra information provided as to why it is now a good idea, when it was not back in 2011. So, at this stage, we will not be supporting it.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. K.J. Maher.

At 18:02 the council adjourned until Wednesday 20 February 2013 at 14:15.