Logie Jan: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Logie Jan: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 27 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5755. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
11. 
JAN LOGIE (Green) 
 to the  
Minister of Justice 
: Will she give full consideration to any recommendations the Law Commission makes on alternative trial processes when the Commission reports back? 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 Yes. 
Jan Logie 
: Can she confirm that the alternative trial processes report is no longer on the Law Commission’s work programme and is on hold indefinitely despite submissions being called for only 7 months ago and there having been decades of research showing that change is urgently needed to protect sexual abuse victims in our courts? 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: I can confirm that the Law Commission has a great body of work that it is working through. This report is not the highest priority that it has. I would have to say to the member that I share her concerns for particularly the victims of violent sexual abuse. However we cannot have a system where there is a civil system or one particular system for those victims and those who are accused and then a completely different system for someone who is accused of another terrible violent crime such as murder or kidnapping. 
Jan Logie 
: If she shares my concerns why is this work programme on hold indefinitely despite only 13 percent of sexual violence cases resulting in a conviction and one in five complainants backing out before the case is over? 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: Well of course I share the concerns that the member has for victims of crime. However that does not mean that we should victimise others by way of having one particular trial process for one strand of offences and completely different trial processes for other strands. I know that there has been quite a lot of work that has been done from various quarters on this but at the end of the day we have a system where we have a common law system and there is work that is being done and has been done particularly around child witnesses. That work is ongoing. It is currently with parliamentary counsel for drafting. But this is not something where I believe we could have—and I could note some of the comments that Mr Charles Chauvel has made on this very issue when he has said and certainly the Labour members have said on the Victims of Crime Reform Bill: “We are mindful of the wisdom of warnings from the Chief Justice and others that any change”— 
Charles Chauvel 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am delighted that the Minister sees fit to quote me with approval but is it relevant to answering the question? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I think there is no need to be quoting. The Minister is not responsible for what Mr Chauvel may have said. 
Jan Logie 
: Why is it off the programme when you share my concern when in the submission in the Law Commission process the inquisitorial aspect was only one small part of that whole piece of research and when one Crown prosecutor describes the system as “brutal” and says “every aspect of the complainant’s character and conduct is questioned and exposed and the likely outcome is not guilty.”? Considering this will she request the Law Commission to put this work back on its programme and report back with recommendations by the end of the year? 
Hon JUDITH COLLINS 
: No.