Page 1306 - Week 04 - Thursday, 5 May 2022
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I would most like to thank my office staff, Anna Gurnhill and Rhys Thompson, for supporting me in this very challenging reform. I would particularly like to acknowledge Anna, who has worked with me from the moment we first discussed this, every single step of the way. Aside from this bill being incredibly legally complex, it has meant that for over a year Anna and I have intensively interrogated, investigated and worked to understand every aspect of sexual assault. Anna’s unwavering commitment to this work and to support me is demonstrated in what we have achieved today.
I would like to acknowledge the ACT government’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Program and all who worked together on the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Steering Committee, chaired by Ms Renée Leon, that has shone such a light on this issue in the ACT.
I want to thank all our frontline services, who are there to listen, support and take action for and with victim-survivors and those that fight to see perpetrators held to account. We have so many important organisations working in this space in the ACT: the ACT Victims of Crimes Commissioner; the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre; Canberra Hospital Forensic and Medical Sexual Assault Care; ACT Policing; the Human Rights Commissioner; the Director of Public Prosecutions; the Women’s Legal Centre ACT; the Domestic Violence Crisis Service; YWCA Canberra; Legal Aid ACT; Meridian Community Health Action; Women with Disabilities ACT; ACTCOSS; the ACT Law Society; and Advocacy for Inclusion, to name just a few. To all of these organisations and individuals: thank you for the work that you do on a daily basis.
This bill shifts the objectives of consent to a sexual act from something that is presumed and can be negated to something that is unassumed and must be given. This model of consent is underpinned by principles of agency, autonomy and responsibility and is based on a culture of healthy, respectful relationships. This bill will focus trials of sexual offences on whether there was positive communication between the parties about the sexual act, rather than whether the victim-survivor resisted the sexual act. This bill ensures that every person in our community has a right to choose whether or not to participate. It is an incredibly empowering piece of legislation.
I have just tabled a revised explanatory statement which I wish to briefly speak to. The revisions reflect comments made by the JACS scrutiny committee and the government’s response, and I have included further consideration and explanation against sections 8, 22 and 28 of the Human Rights Act 2004: the right to recognition and equality before the law, presumed innocence, and limitations on human rights. I note in the revised explanatory statement the ACT’s existing criminal laws and their relevance to circumstances where there is no criminal responsibility and, specifically in the context of this bill, related to an accused person’s cognitive or mental health impairment.
Regarding the presumption of innocence, I wish to clarify that there is no element in the bill which is required to be proven by an accused person or which requires that an accused person needs to introduce evidence to establish their innocence. The change
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