Evidence (National Uniform Legislation) Amendment Bill 2012 passed NT Parliament

Recently, the Evidence (National Uniform Legislation) Amendment Bill 2012 (NT) passed Parliament without amendment to become the fifth State or Territory to adopt National Evidence law provisions in Australia.

Along with NSW, Victoria, ACT and TAS, NT has adopted the new law to implement in the Northern Territory reforms to the law of evidence made by the uniform evidence law, which has now been adopted in the majority of Australian jurisdictions.

The major policy difference between the various uniform evidence law statutes are to do with professional confidential communication privileges, including journalist shield laws and this has been recently under debate in Victoria with their introduction of new laws as well.

Amendments that have been introduced into the Legislative Assembly will provide that in any matters involving an alleged victim under the age of 16 a close relative cannot make an application under section 18 to be excused from giving evidence which focuses the law on the age of the victim rather than the age of the offender.

It is yet to be seen whether other States will move towards adopting national evidence laws however a greater trend towards federalisation of all laws is gradually growing in momentum led by other areas such as national consumer credit law, national workplace safety law and transport law.

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