By John K Arthur, Barrister and Member of the Victorian Bar

Background to uniform evidence law in Australia

The movement towards a unified evidence regime across Australia has been a long, and well-documented, one. In 1995, the Commonwealth and New South Wales each enacted an Evidence Act based on the draft Bill included in the Australian Law Reform Commission's report titled Evidence (ALRC 38).

Over the years since, a number of states and territories have also joined the “uniform” scheme, with varying degrees of uniformity.

The Tasmanian Evidence Act 2001 commenced in 2002. The Victorian Evidence Act 2008 commenced in 2010, with the Australian Capital Territory Evidence Act 2011 commencing in 2011 and the Northern Territory Evidence (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011 commencing in January 2013. By 2014, only Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland had not taken part in the uniform scheme — with all other states and territories being on board to a greater or lesser degree.

Australian Uniform Evidence service

The Australian Uniform Evidence service uses the Commonwealth Evidence Act 1995 as its core and identifies the points at which the legislation in New South Wales (Evidence Act 1995 (NSW)) and Victoria (Evidence Act 2008 (Vic)) differs from the Commonwealth Act. In addition to practitioners practising in the Commonwealth, New South Wales and Victorian jurisdictions, the service will be a valuable resource for practitioners in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory as well, as the Acts there largely mirror the uniform Acts.

In addition to this comparison of legislation, the author team of Justice Geoffrey Bellew of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and John Arthur, Barrister and member of the Victorian Bar, has created section-by-section commentary, providing legal analysis addressing the scope and application of the provisions of each of the Acts and any material differences between them.