AG: Evidence Bill protects the vulnerable

ATTORNEY General Faris Al-Rawi declared that the Evidence Amendment Bill 2020 is designed to protect those people who are most vulnerable to crime and provide mechanisms to effectively prosecute the criminals. But he lamented that because the Opposition UNC was bluntly refusing to support any legislation which requires a special majority for passage in Parliament, the bill is not as complete as Government would have liked it to be.

As he opened debate on the bill in the Senate on Tuesday, Al-Rawi said, "The need to protect vulnerable witnesses is critical in this point. Vulnerable witnesses in the context of our children, most importantly."

He explained the provisions of the legislation would treat with "those who are in circumstances of fear, those who are immature, those who are affected with a disability, trauma, people who are subjected to sexual offences."

Al-Rawi added, "These have to be managed in a very careful way."

While Government wanted to include witness anonymity in the bill, he said, "But that is now out, because quite simply  we would not have obtained the Opposition's support in the House of Representatives."

Recalling that the Opposition had publicly declared last year it would support no legislation requiring a three-fifths majority, Al-Rawi observed, "We will have to come back when that structure of the Parliament lends itself to better consideration."

Evidence provided by closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, he continued, is another issue which the bill addresses. "CCTV evidence as our nation builds out eyes everywhere."

In dealing with CCTV evidence, Al-Rawi said, "As we recognise that people are afraid to step forward and give evidence, we must use the tools of technology to take us there."

He also said the bill deals with the need for legal representation of a suspect "to make sure that the rights are balanced in this equation."

After noting the legislation was the subject of extensive examination by a special select committee chaired by Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat over the last two parliamentary sessions and detailed stakeholder consultation, Al-Rawi said, "It comes in a bedrock of improvements that we have had with the increase in the number of judicial officers, courts, processes."

He told senators that Government was not rushing the debate on the bill and anticipated it could need at least two days of consideration by the Senate.