State government downplays landmark rape reforms

Something momentous happened on Monday, something campaigners against sexual violence towards women have been demanding for ages. But the state government didn’t address it until two days later, writes Kylie Lang.

Something momentous happened on Monday, something campaigners against sexual violence towards women have been demanding for ages. Not that you’d have known it then – we had to wait until Wednesday – because the Palaszczuk government buried it in a bizarre timing of the announcement.

I’m talking about the landmark reforms to rape legislation. But hey, no biggie.

In a press conference at 2pm on Monday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk treated them like a footnote. After talking up a $100 million spend to implement recommendations from the scathing inquiry into police domestic violence responses, Ms Palaszczuk switched to another damning report.

Same, same but different.

“Finally,” she said, touching on the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce’s Hear Her Voice 2, “can I say once again dealing with women and girls, the way in which they interact with the criminal justice system, today we also endorsed $225 million over five years for the implementation of the second stage of the report, and the Attorney-General will go into more detail about the funding for that.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk during a media conference relating to the release of a report from the Commission of Inquiry on police responses to family and domestic violence. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Strange that a $225m use of our taxes is less significant than $100m but not even Ms Fentiman properly addressed the watershed changes set to take place next year.

She rattled off five steps to hopefully improve the justice system – including a “huge community awareness campaign to prevent sexual assault” (interested to see how effective this could be) – before finishing with what came across as a throw-away line.

“I’m very pleased the government will also be legislating an affirmative consent model in Queensland and criminalising stealthing.”

And with that, she was done. Stealthing, which wasn’t explained, is the non-consensual removal of a condom during sex.

There was no mention of allowing accused rapists to be named before their matter is heard at a committal. This only came two days later when it was clear the changes had been oddly downplayed, and Ms Fentiman was forced to explain them in more detail.

The publication of media statements on the government website was equally peculiarly timed. It would seem the probe into police is more important to the Palaszczuk political agenda than how victims of sexual violence are treated by our legal system.

At 3.31pm on Monday, a joint statement from Ms Palaszczuk and Ms Fentiman, titled “action for victim-survivors of sexual violence”, was posted. Right at the bottom of the statement about the $225m spend on Hear Her Voice 2 recommendations – 19 of which were listed in bullet point form – was a line about also moving to an affirmative model of consent.

Ms Fentiman then foreshadowed “legislative amendments to recognise stealthing as rape”. Again, nothing to confirm that accused rapists would be named – a key recommendation of the report which was handed down in July, and an important step in treating the charge of rape like other crimes.

Queensland’s Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman. Picture: Liam Kidston.

Exactly two minutes later – because why allow time for the previous statement to be digested and analysed – the government published another statement.

From the Premier and Police Minister Mark Ryan, it referenced some of the recommendations in the $100m outlay following the inquiry into police responses to domestic violence. Why the government’s responses to the two different reports were conflated is a question for the army of spin doctors our taxes are also funding.

It would take until Wednesday for the public to learn more about the reforms to rape legislation for which advocacy groups – including Women’s Legal Service, Queensland Council of Social Service and Queensland Sexual Assault Network – have long been pushing. Back in March 2021 these three, along with others including the government’s own Women’s Health Queensland, took the unprecedented step of penning an open letter to the Premier and Attorney-General, pleading to “ensure that our rape laws require people to enthusiastically consent to sex and include that ‘reasonable steps’ are taken by parties to ensure consent”.

“There is no need to refer an affirmative consent model to a task-force or another inquiry and be forced to wait for an undefined time for them to report back,” the letter said.

So much for that.

Part one of the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce report was handed down eight months later, in December.

And here we are this week, with part two being addressed, nearly five months after it was received. When Ms Fentiman fronted the media on Wednesday, she gave campaigners the win they’d been wanting, dragging Queensland into the modern age. Queensland is one of the last states to protect the identities of accused sex offenders until evidence is tested at committal.

“These prohibitions are based on rape myths, where women come forward and make up complaints,” Ms Fentiman said. “There is just no place for those myths anymore.” True, but why undersell such vital strides forward? Perhaps the government was hoping we didn’t notice that it had acted far too late. Yet again.

LOVE: Art taking an ecological turn, prompting us to think more about our planet. The Air exhibition, large-scale works by Aussie and international artists opens today at GOMA and runs until April 2023. Be prepared to be awe-struck.

LOATHE: More mixed messages from the Premier: Annastacia Palaszczuk states Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll is the “strong woman” to lead reform of the QPS then appoints her male 2IC Steve Gollschewski to do the job.

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail

[e-mail]