Thank you. That's really helpful. I appreciate the clarification.
We had a witness here named Jonathan Rudin who was from Aboriginal Legal Services. I invite any of you to comment on his views. He claims that the reverse-onus provision on bail applications for those charged with domestic violence is misguided. In his submission he said that it particularly affects indigenous women and girls. He said that often what happens is that there's this phenomenon of dual charging, as he calls it, in which a man is charged with domestic assault and insists that his partner started it and should also be charged. That has led to more women becoming enmeshed in the criminal justice system and women ending up with convictions for assault that they should never have had.
He says:
If these provisions go through and their partner once again alleges abuse then they may have trouble meeting the reverse onus. This means they'll be detained, and they will likely plead guilty, and the cycle will continue.
He says that's going to have a disproportionate impact on indigenous women because, as you know, they're grossly overrepresented in our prison population, over 40%
I wonder if any of you have comments regarding this phenomenon that he brought to our attention. How would you react to that?
Go ahead, Ms. Kler.