NT joins Australia in Grace Tame-led sexual abuse law reform

Grace Tame says new sexual abuse laws, now passed in NT parliament, reflect the weight of ‘crimes against nature’. Here’s how the reforms will protect victims.

The Territory government has passed new legislation to protect victims, particularly children, of sexual abuse.

Passed into law during Thursday’s parliament sittings, the NT government has criminalised stealthing, removed the ability for child sex offenders to rely on good character references during sentencing, and introduced a new offence of grooming a child.

The NT has also become the last jurisdiction to replace “sexual relationship with child” with “repeated sexual abuse” in its criminal code.

That reform comes after years of advocacy led by 2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame, who travelled to the Top End for the landmark moment.

Ms Tame, who is a survivor of child sex abuse, said the amendment would “reflect the gravity of this criminal act”.

2021 Australian of the Year Grace Tame has described the NT’s new laws as “significant” and “historic”. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“The conviction rate for child sexual abuse is 0.3 per cent – it is incredibly low,” she said.

“It’s incredibly difficult to prosecute for several reasons, and one of those is the reality that children who report lack the language to, not only understand, but then to express what has happened to them.”

Ms Tame said putting that language explicitly in the law would lead the community “to better understand” and identify the crime.

“If you don’t understand what something is, how can you teach it?” she said.

“Crimes should be remembered from the point of view of the child victim.

“What child sexual abuse is, is the experience of a self governing adult, coming along and playing God with a child before they have ever had the chance to control their own life and experience autonomy.

“We just want to put the pen back in the child’s hands so that they can tell the story from their point of view.”

Attorney-General Chansey Peach applauded the “fierce and tireless” advocacy of Grace Tame in sexual abuse law reform. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

Mr Paech said the change to the wording was on the back of Ms Tame’s “tireless and fierce advocacy”.

“This is to recognise that this conduct is the deplorable abuse of a child and the terminology of a ‘relationship’ is not appropriate,” he said.

“The child victim is in no way complicit in the offending.”

Mr Paech, in an emotional speech in parliament, said the suite of reforms would better protect vulnerable children.

“(This) is a contemporary piece of legislation that is victim-centred, that provides the protections for Territory kids, that brings in those new offences,” he said.

The Bill has also criminalised “stealthing”, which is lying about or removing a condom during sex, as well as taking or recording indecent images of a child.

A new offence of grooming a child with the intention of making it easier to procure the child to engage in sexual activity was included in the Bill too.

The reforms will also create a broader definition of a person of “authority” to capture “any person who has authority over the young person because of the circumstances of their relationship”.

Another key reform blocks child sex offenders from relying on good character references during sentencing, a change Ms Tame said marked the first of its kind in Australia.

“That is thanks to the tireless, consistent, groundbreaking work of Harry James and Jarad Grice and their Your Reference Ain’t Relevant campaign,” she said.

“Character references if anything are further evidence of the grooming that is required to offend against a child,” she said.

The reforms passed in NT parliament on Thursday morning. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“Perpetrators of child sexual abuse don’t just groom their child victims, they groom the entire community, they groom a child’s familial and other social networks in order to create an entire ecosystem of abuse where that kind of behaviour is normalised.”

Mr Paech said he would now advocate for other Australian states and territories to follow in the NT’s footsteps.

“Anyone who abuses a Territory kid does not deserve a good character reference – let’s be clear about that,” he said.

The Bill passed on Thursday morning with the support of the Country Liberal Party and independent Goyder MLA Kezia Purick.

However Deputy Opposition Leader Gerard Maley said it was “a shame” it took the government so long to act on the reforms, many of which were recommended by the 2017 Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.

“It was committed by them in 2016 and it’s taken seven years long years to be able to put the rights of the victims first,” he said.

“The CLP will always put the rights of the victim over the offender.

“(Sexual abuse) is an abhorrent crime and we need to make sure that we support those victims with whatever we can do.”

What’s next for sexual abuse law reform

The NT Law Reform Committee will undertake an inquiry into consent in sexual offences, with a report to government later this year expected to result in further reforms, if recommended.

While the new laws mark a win for victim-survivors such as Ms Tame, advocates are still fighting for the Territory to join the rest of Australia in naming accused rapists.

NT laws automatically prohibit someone charged with rape or serious sexual offences from being publicly identified until they are committed to stand trial – a process that can take years.

Advocates including Ms Tame and #LetHerSpeak campaign director Ms Funnell have also been pushing for change on victim gag laws.

Territorian victim-survivors can only publicly share their story if all legal proceedings, including any appeals, have finished – leaving them among the most gagged in the country.

Ms Tame was the first female in Tasmania to be granted the right to speak under her own name about her personal experience of sexual abuse as a child.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare’s latest available data, spanning 2020-21, shows substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect were far higher in the NT than in any other state of territory.

For children aged under one, there were 63.8 NT children per 1000 who were the subject of a substantiated notification – compared to a national average of 16.6.

For all children aged 0-7, the rate of substantiated abuse and neglect in the NT was 26 kids per 1000 children, next to 8.8 nationally.