Mr. Mark Harty:

I agree with most of the latter half but on the first matter, as Senator McDowell will know well, it is very difficult to prove a negative. It is very difficult to give evidence to prove that one is a child abuser. That is one of the reasons, and the most basic reason, why he who asserts must prove. The assertion is that made in the defamatory statement. On the implications of that for that in the running of defamation actions, it is difficult to conceive of a defamation action where the plaintiff does not have to get in the witness box. Even in those actions, and I have been involved in actions where the defendant has been made to go first, it still is necessary in real terms for the plaintiff to get in the witness box. It is those circumstances where it is always open to the person who has made the defamatory statement to put it to them that the statement is true.