Ace Breaking News – Queensland’s affirmative consent laws come into place from Monday
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Today marks the first day of Queensland's new sexual consent laws.
The changes include the affirmative consent model, along with the criminalization of stealthing, as part of a significant overhaul of sexual violence laws.
"We know disproportionately women and girls are victims of sexual assault," Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence Shannon Fentiman said.
"It's also important to remember that countless brave survivors shared their stories to create this change."
So, what’s changing?
Queensland laws previously defined consent as "being freely and voluntarily given by a person with the cognitive capacity to give it."
The new laws have changed this definition by replacing the word "given" with "agreed."
"Our new laws explicitly recognize that consent must be affirmative and must be given," Ms. Fentiman said.
The state has moved to make stealthing a crime by recognizing it as rape.
This will align Queensland with NSW, Victoria, the ACT, South Australial, and Tasmania, where it is also illegal.
What is stealthing?
Stealthing is when a partner secretly removes a condom during sex without the other person's consent.
The act of stealing, which Ms Fentiman said has become common, will attract a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Women's Legal Service Chief Executive Nadia Bromley said the changes help eliminate grey areas within the court system.
"Stealthing could have been prosecuted under the previous laws, but it's so important to have it explicitly called out," she said.
"Anytime before now would have been better [to have the new laws], but very happy to see these changes today."
Why are the laws changing?
The law reforms were among 188 recommendations from the final Women's Safety and Justice Taskforce's Hear Her Voice report, which the Queensland government supported or supported in principle.
The bill was created following consultation with domestic, family, and sexual violence stakeholders.
The government will invest $225 million to implement the recommendations from the report, which also included upgrading the IT systems in 81 courts across Queensland to make it easier for victims to give evidence and expanding the 24-hour sexual assault response team in Townsville to two other locations.
Figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show there were 35,138 victims of sexual assault recorded nationwide in 2023, an increase of 11 per cent on the previous year.
New South Wales and Queensland saw the most significant increases, rising 19 percent (2,296 victims) and 14 percent (1,011 victims).
Women made up 84 per cent, or 30,466, of sexual assault victims.
Ms Bromley said that sexual violence is one of the most under-reported crimes.
"We know one in five Australian women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15," she said.
"So the law has a role to play in addressing problematic attitudes and myths about sexual violence."
What happens now?
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Some experts have questioned if the laws will be enough to protect women better.
Ms Bromley said there could be room for changes within the act upon furthermore
"I think we will need to see how this goes and how the new jury directions go in relations to sexual offence proceedings," she said.
"What level of reporting do we see? It will be interesting to see how this education campaign goes and how the laws work."
Ms. Fentiman said, "Laws on their own are not enough."
"We need to continue to educate, particularly younger Queenslanders on consent," she said.
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