Federal Labor Senator Nita Green has recently moved to establish a Senate inquiry into sexual consent laws.
These are the laws that describe how sexual consent is defined for rape and sexual assault offences. In Australia, these definitions differ across the states and territories, which causes inconsistencies and confusion, as well as complexities in sexual consent education.
This area of law has been under the spotlight following recent legal changes in NSW, the ACT and Victoria. Each has taken law reform steps towards an affirmative consent standard, which means consent is understood as ongoing communication.
Each person must say or do something to indicate consent and check that the other is willing to proceed. Tasmania was the first state to move towards affirmative consent in 2004.
History suggests harmonisation won’t occur unless done in a politically strategic way that aims to build a broad consensus for reform – while also being willing to push past the objections of groups that actively work to preserve the status quo.
Source: It’s time we aligned sexual consent laws across Australia – but this faces formidable challenges