Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

EVIDENCE ACT 1995 - SECT 44

             (1)  Except as provided by this section, a cross‑examiner must not question a witness about a previous representation alleged to have been made by a person other than the witness.

             (2)  A cross‑examiner may question a witness about the representation and its contents if:

                     (a)  evidence of the representation has been admitted; or

                     (b)  the court is satisfied that it will be admitted.

             (3)  If subsection (2) does not apply and the representation is contained in a document, the document may only be used to question a witness as follows:

                     (a)  the document must be produced to the witness;

                     (b)  if the document is a tape recording, or any other kind of document from which sounds are reproduced--the witness must be provided with the means (for example, headphones) to listen to the contents of the document without other persons present at the cross‑examination hearing those contents;

                     (c)  the witness must be asked whether, having examined (or heard) the contents of the document, the witness stands by the evidence that he or she has given;

                     (d)  neither the cross‑examiner nor the witness is to identify the document or disclose any of its contents.

             (4)  A document that is so used may be marked for identification.