Following the March4Justice outside Parliament House yesterday, Women's Safety NSW met with the Prime Minister's Office, the Minister for Women, the Attorney-General's Office, their Shadows and the Greens to call for urgent reform which will increase access to justice for sexual assault survivors.
"Right now, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 98.5% of sexual predators are considered innocent in the eyes of the law," says Hayley Foster, Chief Executive Officer of Women's Safety NSW. "We are essentially giving perpetrators the green light to offend and this needs to change."
In the meetings in Parliament House, Women's Safety NSW outlined a number of key reforms needed to make the criminal justice system capable of delivering justice to sexual assault victims. These include:
- – Adopting a model of affirmative consent to put the onus on the person seeking consent to take positive action to confirm it has been given.
- – Reforming procedural laws of tendency and coincidence to make it more accessible to admit past behaviour of alleged offenders in court.
- – Extending the option of evidence pre-record to adult complainants of sexual assault, preventing the re-traumatisation which comes from lengthy court cases.
- – Development of jury directions to ensure late disclosure and prior inconsistent statements on the part of sexual assault complaintants are not used to discredit them.
- – Ensuring all actors in the system from police, prosecutors, and judicial officers, are afforded specialist training and professional development to equip them in providing appropriate responses.
"These changes would truly make the criminal justice system safer, and more accessible to victims of sexual assault. If we genuinely want to see a reduction in sexual violence in this country we must ensure the criminal justice system is fit for purpose to hold perpetators to account. Right now Women's Safety organisations are looking to the federal government for leadership regarding this matter", continues Hayley Foster.
Women's Safety NSW also reinforced the critical need for the following:
– A national definition of domestic violence which puts coercive control at its center.
