SUBMISSION

ANROWS submission on the NSW Sexual Consent Reforms Review

ANROWS provided a submission in response to the NSW Department of Communities and Justice review of the Sexual Consent Reforms.

The review considers whether the current legislative framework, Crimes Legislation Amendment (Sexual Consent Reforms) Act 2021, provides clarity and certainty about consent, addresses misconceptions in legal processes, and is operating as intended in practice.

ANROWS supports the Department’s commitment to sustaining and refining the sexual consent reforms, including the use of a communicative and affirmative model of consent that reflects contemporary understandings of sexual autonomy.

However, the evidence indicates that legislation alone cannot achieve the intended outcomes while rape myths, victim-blaming attitudes and gender-inequitable norms remain prevalent in the community and within legal settings.

ANROWS welcomes the opportunity to contribute evidence to support the Department in refining the reforms so they more effectively advance justice, safety and accountability.

 

ANROWS recommends that the Department:

1. Explicitly recognise coercive control patterns in the “circumstances where there is no consent” (s 61HJ), by including additional clear and relevant examples.
2. Include jury directions that cover coercive control and economic dependence.
3. Develop and publish detailed investigative guidance for police that directs them to focus on what the accused did to seek consent.
4. Ensure that all agencies provide ongoing trauma and violence informed training on communicative consent, and that this training is evaluated.
5. Make the s 292A–292E directions presumptively mandatory when consent is in dispute, with judges able to opt out only in exceptional cases and required to give reasons.
6. Require judges to give jury directions on flirtation, post-offence contact and trauma responses at pretrial and as context during trial when raised.
7. Amend the Criminal Procedure Act to require judges to consider giving relevant consent directions at or near the time of key evidence, with the option to repeat them in the summing up.
8. Relocate “stealthing” from a legislative note and include it as an explicit “circumstance of non-consent” to ensure consistency with reforms in other states and territories.
9. Include a jury direction to address the misconception that perceived flirtatious or sexual behaviour implies consent to later sexual activity.
10. Continue investment in independent monitoring of police and prosecution decision-making in sexual offence matters, including external review of ‘no further action’ decisions.
11. Support ongoing evaluation of specialist approaches to managing sexual assault proceedings.

 

This submission will be of interest to policymakers, legal and justice system professionals, researchers, advocates, and organisations working to strengthen consent laws and responses to sexual violence.

Download the full submission to explore the evidence and recommendations in detail.

 

 

Suggested citation

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. (2025).Re: Sexual Consent Reforms Review: An ANROWS submission to the NSW Department of Communities and Justice [Submission no. 3]. ANROWS.