Senator Linda Reynolds has proposed controversial new legislation that would make it illegal not to report rape to the police – even for survivors of sexual assault.
Proposed legislation to make it illegal not to report sexual assault in ACT Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds has been slammed by survivor advocates.
Advocates for sexual assault survivors have slammed suggestions that it should be illegal not to report rape to the police.
Greens Senator Larissa Waters asked experts about proposed changes to Australia’s consent laws during a public hearing.
He referred to a submission submitted by Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds to an inquiry into how Bruce Lehrman’s rape trial was handled.
Senator Reynolds has called for an amendment to the ACT Crimes Act to prevent individuals from using the media or parliamentary forum about an alleged criminal offense that should be the subject of criminal prosecution.
Liberal senator Linda Reynolds (pictured) has been praised by sexual assault survivor advocates for submitting a proposed law that would make it illegal not to report rape to police.
He also pointed to a section of NSW law that makes it an offense for anyone who knows or believes that a serious, criminal offense has been committed and fails to report it to the police.
Consent advocate Saxon Mullins said the former minister’s comments were unbelievable.
‘Survivors have many different experiences when they go through the justice system and they will get many different ways out of it,’ he told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
‘But one thing that will always be the same is that your agency is taken away.
‘To suggest that you should do that and have some warped view of what justice looks like is despicable.’
Asked to give their views by Greens MP Larissa Waters (pictured), advocates told a parliamentary committee that the proposed legislation would prevent surviving agencies.
The head of rape and sexual assault research and advocacy slammed the senator for making a ‘completely ridiculous’ claim.
“Reporting sexual assault to anyone in your life, let alone your most trusted person, to a police agency that historically doesn’t have a good track record,” says Rachel Bergin.
‘We strongly condemn these comments and question the ethics that led the senator to make these statements.’
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