The competence inquiry under s 13 of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) is confined to whether a witness has the basic capacity to understand a question and give an intelligible answer; it does not extend to the reliability of the witness's evidence or the witness's capacity to understand a particular question framed in a particular way. A witness does not become incompetent because of a question asked and a response to it. Inconsistencies in a child's evidence arising from the manner of questioning go to reliability (a jury question), not competence.
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