Sydney (Tribune International, Lynda Voltz’s Office, 12 March 2021): The Shadow Minister for Police, Lynda Voltz is calling on the Berejiklian Government to immediately implement the Law Reform Commission’s consent recommendations, after the NSW Police Commissioner told Budget Estimates law reform is necessary.
Commissioner Mick Fuller today gave evidence that only 10 per cent of sexual assault crimes reported to NSW Police went to trial and only 10 per cent of those that did go to court resulted in a conviction.
The Commissioner said police have a number of strong cases before the courts, with witnesses and forensic evidence – but the case always rests on the lack of clarity around consent.
Commissioner Fuller singled out this lack of clarity in the law as a difficulty in the prosecution of sexual assaults. While other forms of crime have decreased or stabilized over time, the number of sexual assaults against adults and children has climbed substantially.
The Law Reform Commission recommended that “The Crimes Act should provide that a person who does not offer physical or verbal resistance to a sexual activity is not, by reason only of that fact, to be taken to consent to the sexual activity.”
Ms Voltz said: “The NSW Attorney General has been sitting on the Law Reform Commission recommendations for over a year. It’s well past time that the victims of sexual assault were given equal consideration before the law and the Attorney General brought changes on consent to the NSW Parliament.”
[End]
