Editor’s View: Attitudes to sexual assault must change

That 87 per cent of female sexual assault victims don’t report the crime to police is a problem we all share. It indicates something is still very wrong in the way we as a community view rape, writes The Editor.

That 87 per cent of women who are sexually assaulted do not end up reporting the crime to police is a problem we all share. It indicates that something is still very wrong in the way we as a community view rape. We must do so much better.

The challenge comes into even clearer focus with the finding that two in five Australians think it is common that women accuse men of sexual assault as a way of “getting back at them” for something – and that one in eight believe that a woman who is drunk or affected by drugs is partly to blame for being sexually assaulted. Most of us don’t even believe you can be raped by a husband or long term partner.

Well done to Justice Margaret McMurdo, then, who says she will focus the next phase of her landmark Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce review into issues of sexual violence against women. It is clear from these results we need it.

Justice McMurdo is, from today, also asking women to tell their stories of sexual assault – to come forward, just as the courageous victims of domestic and family violence have done in recent years, so we can together end the stigma and effect meaningful change.

Submissions will be open for six weeks and then Justice McMurdo will have six months to produce recommendations for the government. But the challenge will be that recommendations alone will not achieve anything. This is about both education and changing attitudes. We would suggest there needs to also be change in the way police deal with allegations, to cut as many obstacles as possible.

Justice McMurdo has done an outstanding job in this role so far, but the job is only half done. It is time for the state government to act on the first phase of the review so that when Justice McMurdo presents her final report, there is nothing standing in the way of this so-important discussion that we are clearly well overdue to have as a community.

Justice Margaret McMurdo.

In December, Justice McMurdo released the first part of her review – which included a scathing assessment of the failings of our state’s justice ­system, including that domestic and family violence perpetrators were being emboldened by police, lawyers and the courts.

Justice McMurdo’s report, entitled Hear Her Voice, made 89 recommendations – including a new criminal charge of coercive control carrying a 14-year jail penalty, updated stalking laws that recognise how technology is used to terrorise, and an independent commission of inquiry into police cultural issues.

The state government is yet to issue a response on those findings despite Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman promising to address it in the new year. We would urge Minister Fentiman to get moving.

Justice McMurdo now also says she is exploring a change in the law so that sexual assault perpetrators could be named from the time they are charged, similar to those faced with other serious criminal charges. Queensland is the only state (with the NT) where the identity of the accused in sexual assault cases is protected until after they have been committed to stand trial.

“It may be time for a change,” Justice McMurdo said as she acknowledged Queensland is one of the last remaining states protecting the identity of accused rapists. “Some would argue that by doing this, you are really perpetrating the rape myth that women make up complaints of rape.” We agree.