Ms Maria McDonald:

Ironically, in this Bill it extends beyond that to people who have special protection measures. The issue, however, is that they have only been used once and the difficulty is that there is no clarity on when they should be used. It states that children and people who have mental health issues should be entitled to use them but it does not clarify when the court should allow their use otherwise. From a defence perspective, there are concerns that this might water down the right to cross-examination.