Page 2760 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 16 August 2017
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particular, I am pleased that the final bill actually criminalises the non-consensual sharing of, or threatening to capture or share, intimate images, which we all know to be a major problem both here and around Australia, and gives effect to the national statement of principles. It draws upon best practice from around Australia and incorporates many of the recommendations and views of those who put submissions into our draft bill; makes sure that physical distribution methods like postering are covered; and uses gender-neutral and accessible language where possible.
However, as I have said before, I do not believe that the legislation that will be passed today goes far enough. This is just the beginning of the reform process. I will be working hard over the coming months to ensure that our ACT legislation encompasses some of the broad principles put forward in my invasion of privacy bill and in the discussion paper to the exposure draft and, very importantly, is based on the feedback received from stakeholders through the consultation process.
There are a number of issues which I believe are outstanding. We need to bring the ACT into line with other Australian jurisdictions on consent. We should be leading the way in making sure that consent has to be communicated and cannot be assumed. This will mean making sure things like stealthing are captured by criminal law as well. We need to rectify the holes in our Crimes Act that leave young people at the risk of being criminalised and stigmatised for consensual sexual activity. We also need to address invasions of privacy that need to be criminalised, like the malicious outing of a young queer or trans person, audio recordings of intimate encounters, and culturally and religiously insensitive invasions of privacy.
The Greens would also like to see the sexual assault reform program re-ignited, to give a voice to all of the community services advocacy groups whose voices are not heard in the law reform process in combination with legal experts.
For all these reasons, my bill takes a more holistic approach than the Liberals’. The Liberals’ bill and its subsequent amendments will update the Crimes Act with respect to a narrow view on righting a very specific wrong: the non-consensual sharing of an intimate image.
The Greens believe that if we are addressing the non-consensual sharing of an intimate image then we need to talk about what it means to share, what we think intimate is, and what consent is. We come to this from a holistic perspective that, in addressing this behaviour, we need to address the many and varied problems of how our law addresses privacy and consent. My bill tries to do this.
For example, I want to close the loophole that means that some young people who consensually share intimate images could be charged with pornography offences. My bill draws upon the experience and knowledge of the community services sector and from privacy specialists to synthesise an approach that not only addresses that narrow wrong of non-consensual sharing of an intimate image but also goes further to include a positive definition of consent.
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