Australian state to reform sexual assault law with affirmative consent

The Australian state of New South Wales said it would adopt affirmative consent as part of a reform to its sexual assault laws, Attorney General, Mark Speakman, announced Tuesday.

Speakman said the state government was adopting in principle 44 recommendations made late 2020 by a state commission reviewing consent in relation to sexual offences.

He also pointed at two key reforms relating to consent that go further.

The first is that there cannot be consent unless the party has done or said something to communicate it.

The second is that for an alleged perpetrator to have a reasonable belief that consent was given, they will have to have taken active steps to obtain it.

“You just can’t assume through lack of resistance or lack of protest that consent has been given.

“It’s very simple, consent has to be communicated by the other party saying or doing something,” Speakman said.

According to him, to have a reasonable belief, an accused will have to have taken steps.

“We want to make it clear that a thought process is not such a step, a reasonable step has to be an act or something said to ascertain the complainant’s consent,” he said.

The commission’s review was sparked by the advocacy of Saxon Mullins, who has been advocating for changes to consent law since going public with her story in 2018.

A court found Mullins did not give consent, but an appeal judge ruled the alleged perpetrator had the mistaken but genuine belief that she had consented, according to Australian newswire AAP.