Page 1212 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 11 April 2018
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There is positive change. When I grew up, the fairytale role model was Sleeping Beauty, who was rescued by Prince Charming. In this story, of course, consent by the passive Sleeping Beauty was 100 per cent assumed by the dashing prince. She was asleep. But one of my staff told me that in more recent Disney films the topic of consent is making headway. To quote from the unlikely hero and love interest, Kristoff, in Frozen: “I could kiss you. I mean, I’d like to. May I?” And Anna, the heroine, replies with an unequivocal yes.
Disney is arguably the archetypal platform for gender stereotyping. We all think of the pretty princesses who have been rescued by the handsome princes and have had no thought whatsoever about what happily ever after might actually look like in real life. So if Disney can move forward on this issue—they did that five years ago, no less—it is really time that our progressive territory embraced free and voluntarily given consent that is not only assumed but equally sought out and affirmed.
I now return to the key issues addressed in the bill. In citing the Australian Law Reform Commission, the YWCA submission to the exposure draft consultation on this bill clearly articulates my primary aim in addressing the issue of consent—that is, to create a definition of consent based on the concept of agreement and “to protect the sexual autonomy and freedom of choice of two adults”.
I have also taken care to ensure that the rights of young people are not overlooked in the proposed changes to the legislation. In developing this bill, I have considered section 22 of the ACT Human Rights Act 2004, which states that everybody charged with a criminal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty. My bill is based on feedback from the Human Rights Commission, and we have worked with them to ensure that our legislation both improves the definition of consent and meets our human rights obligations. On balance, I believe that the proposed legislation does not unduly burden the right to be presumed innocent and provides appropriate safeguards to ensure that people are not convicted merely because they are unable to overcome an unreasonable burden of proof. I hope that this legislation will, if passed, benefit all people and begin to level the playing field.
My sincerest thanks to those who made submissions to the consultation on this bill and provided verbal feedback. In no particular order, I wish to thank the ACT Council of Social Service, Sexual Health and Family Planning ACT, the ANU Women’s Department, Legal Aid ACT, the Women’s Centre for Health Matters, the ACT LGBTIQ Ministerial Advisory Council, Women with Disabilities ACT, the Youth Coalition of the ACT, Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, the ACT Human Rights Commission, YWCA Canberra, Professor Patricia Easteal and Georgia O’Dea.
I offer my sincere thanks again to all those who argued so strongly to address this issue last year. The work of these individuals and organisations is what enables our society to address injustice in the community. The examples of flexibility, adaptability and forward thinking, in particular in the not-for-profit sector and in law reform, mean that we can tackle the issues that bureaucracies often cannot. It is crucial that we, as members of the Legislative Assembly and the government, work to support the sector to continue to do this work and to listen to what they have to say.
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