Bills

Statutes Amendment (Attorney-General's Portfolio) Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 24 May 2016.)

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (17:05): I put on the record once again my gratitude to our very patient Clerk. I will speak briefly today on behalf of Dignity for Disability to indicate that we will support the second reading of the Statutes Amendment(Attorney-General's Portfolio) Bill, or the odds and sods bill, as the Attorney-General in another place has referred to it, as it does cover a very broad range of technical issues and includes some features which are close to our heart, particularly as they relate to the Vulnerable Witnesses Act 2015, which was the piece of legislation that formalised a lot of changes to the police and courts system arising from the Disability Justice Plan.

In particular I thank Will Evans for briefing my staff member on this bill, and also the Deputy Premier for his letter a couple of months ago, outlining some of the issues that relate to the Vulnerable Witnesses Act and consequent amendments which are needed, and in particular the work people like David Plater has done on this in the last couple of years. We will have some questions and comments to make on this bill, particularly as it relates to the Vulnerable Witnesses Act regarding the need for a definition of 'complex communication needs', but we will ask those questions at the committee stage. I will not number those questions because I know that the Hon. Mr Malinauskas does like to guess how many I will have, but I do not think it will be 36.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. A.L. McLachlan.

At 17:11 the council adjourned until Tuesday 7 June 2016 at 14:15.