NSW Labor has slammed the Berejiklian Government for referring consent laws in NSW to the Australian Law Reform Commission and failing to release its long overdue Sexual Assault Strategy, letting survivors down.
Earlier today NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman announced that consent laws would be referred to the Australian Law Reform Commission after a Four Corners report on the ordeal of Saxon Mullins, who accused a man of raping her in 2013, drawing national attention last night.
The Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault promised that a Sexual Assault Strategy would be completed by April 2016, but in the last two years the Government has only produced a draft strategy which is believed to have been broadly panned by stakeholders.
The last progress report on the NSW Sexual Assault Strategy was released in December 2016.
Instead of meeting their commitment to develop a Sexual Assault Strategy, the Government is only making one-off reactive announcements in response to public cases.
Labor is calling on the Berejiklian Government to cease its chronic inaction and commit to actions which assist sexual assault survivors without them having to put themselves in the national spotlight.
Quotes attributable to Shadow Minister for the Prevention of Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Jenny Aitchison
"The Berejiklian Government is in policy inertia. They have consistently failed to do anything other than put up piecemeal announcements when their hands are forced in light of the public outrage when survivors have the courage to tell their stories.
"Everyone has been inspired by the enormous courage of Saxon Mullins in sharing her story with the nation. It is stories like hers which will help others who suffer the same plight, however it should not be up to survivors to have relive their trauma on national television to force action from our governments on sexual assault.
"Survivors should not be forced to make their stories public while the government is in a deep inertia, refusing to properly resource a sexual assault strategy."
