Fight for women’s rights

Bri Lee’s book Eggshell Skull is about how female sexual assault victims experience the legal system.

Bri Lee. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Since your book came out you’ve been campaigning for a review of Queensland’s 110-year-old legal defence to rape, which allows the accused to argue they had an honest yet mistaken belief of consent. You recently had a big win. What happens next?

We’ve been fighting for the laws to be referred to the Law Reform Commission for review. We came up against a lot of conservative pushback against that so I’m trying not to lose sight of what a win it is (that the review has been announced). Queensland’s legislation is the most archaic in Australia and I’m confident the commission will come back with recommendations that are an improvement. The question is whether there’s any possibility we could seize this opportunity and get legislation that properly reflects community attitudes and pull out in front of the rest of Australia, both in relation to the definition of consent and the way we handle the mistaken-fact defence.

What would that actually mean for survivors in material terms?

The legislation makes it extremely difficult to get a guilty verdict in any case where it’s adult-to-adult sexual assault where consent is an issue. This has a blowback effect as to whether or not prosecution will even refer a matter to a court list, and of course the step before that: whether or not police will press charges or investigate or encourage a complainant to make a formal statement. By improving the legislation we can improve all three steps of the experience for a survivor.

You’ve been inside the legal system, having worked as a judge’s associate. You’ve also been outside it as the complainant in your own case. How did the latter shape your book’s direction?

I didn’t know I was going to write anything about my year as an associate until I started the process on the other side. That was when I realised there would be very few people who had actually seen both sides of that process and even fewer who might be willing to speak honestly about the issues.

Being an associate is considered a solid grounding for a legal career. Were you worried at all about how the book would affect your career?

I wrote Eggshell Skull knowing it would most likely torch any potential for a legal career at the bar or in any kind of advocacy role. But I felt like if my two options were to keep benefiting from that system and go along with the status quo or to try and change things and make an improvement, it didn’t really feel like a choice for me … I’m always careful to clarify, anyone who knows me or that time in my life knows I sat down with my judge and showed him the manuscript before I sent it to the publisher. He and I still have a wonderful and respectful relationship. It’s not some kind of salacious expose or something like that.

These days you split your time between writing books, freelancing and speaking engagements, which brings us to Sydney Crime Writers Festival. What makes a good crime story?

(Laughs) I have to be careful. I don’t read a lot of crime. If I see them get the law stuff wrong it gives me the shits! The best in crime writing is what we also love in someone like Helen Garner. It’s always so easy to say good guy versus bad guy. But the best writing and most interesting story always lies in the acknowledgment that there’s a bit of both in us.

Bri Lee will speak at BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival on September 6.