I am not in favour of the use of miscellaneous Bills for complex issues such as those we are discussing today. The issues in this Bill are diverse and have little or no connection to each other. The Minister went through the list of what the Bill covers, from the use of counselling notes in sexual violence crimes to obligating courts to consider a community service order in lieu of prison sentences, and even to outdoor seating on public land. There is very little connection between these. During the pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill, some of these issues were not even discussed. These matters deserve their own stand-alone Bill in order to be interrogated properly, to give us the time to discuss them, to make sure we do due diligence on each Bill and to give each matter what it needs. The whole process is rushed, and rushed Bills make bad Bills. We learned from the Minister's speech that more amendments with other stuff are coming later on. We should have more chances to discuss such matters for a longer time. Due to the length of time I have to speak, I will only be able to speak on one aspect of this Bill. I wish to talk about one of the aspects of the Bill that I know and of which I have some experience. The practice of the defence in sexual violence cases requesting counselling notes has become the norm, with devastating consequences for victims who are seeking justice. I am a qualified and former practising counsellor. During my time counselling clients, they would have disclosed to me some absolutely harrowing details, including being victims of child abuse or sexual and gender-based violence, and being victims and survivors of coercive control. As a practising counsellor, I was not aware that the legal team of a perpetrator of these horrific crimes could request my counselling notes to be used to defend its clients. Thank God, I was never asked to hand over such notes. I do not genuinely think I would have complied with such an order. Whatever the consequences would be, so be it. We also need to look at the practice of the DPP in the requesting of counselling notes. Once the DPP requests them, they have to be handed over to the defendant. The confidentiality of the counselling room is essential to allow the healing process. That is what it is there for. I checked the code of ethics of the organisation with which I was accredited and the only time I was permitted to break the confidentiality of that counselling room was when I felt somebody was a danger to themselves or to somebody else. This is something I had to do a couple of times over the years. The amendment that the Minister proposes requires that pre-trial disclosure hearings take place in all cases where counselling notes are requested. The Minister contends that such an amendment would balance the constitutional rights of the accused to a fair trial with the rights of the complainant to privacy. Survivors wholeheartedly disagree with this Bill and do not believe that this Bill goes anywhere near close enough to upholding their rights. They contend it will continue to violate their rights and continue to cause significant psychological harms to survivors. To continue to allow the perpetrator to read the private, personal counselling notes of victims is inhumane and must be ended. I am a member of the justice committee, as the Minister will know, and this point was made across party lines. Members of the Minister's party agreed that the use of counselling notes should be abolished when it comes to situations like this. Without this full ban, it will continue to retraumatise victims. It will stop victims from continuing with their lifesaving recovery or stop them from seeking justice to continue their healing. It will cause ever further delays in an already chaotic judicial system. Survivors also make the point that judges are not qualified counsellors or therapists. They have no understanding of third-hand information. I ask the Minister to accept any amendments that the Opposition proposes as this Bill progresses through the rest of the House, and to bear in mind the opinions and real-life experience of survivors and victims.

Sentiment score: -0.13