Grace Tame applauds changes to child sex abuse law
Mibenge Nsenduluka |
The South Australian government is set to change the wording of a serious child sex abuse offence following a campaign led by abuse survivor and former Australian of the Year Grace Tame.
The crime heading will be changed from “Unlawful sexual relationship with child” to “Sexual abuse of a child” under a new Bill in Parliament’s Legislative Council on Thursday.
The heading amendment will not alter the nature of the offence.
Ms Tame, who has led a campaign for harmonisation of child abuse laws across the country, previously raised concerns about the language in the legislation.
She argued the word “relationship” implied mutual responsibility and consent.
“This change takes significant steps towards eliminating salacious debate and confusion,” Ms Tame said on Thursday.
“Our legislation must reflect the unequivocal seriousness of this crime, which is never a child’s desire, but instead a perverted fantasy projected onto and into them through a process of grooming which involves a stratagem of calculated – often invisible – offences designed to gradually increase a pre-existing stark power imbalance.”
The new wording will be consistent with similar offences in Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory, NSW and Tasmania.
South Australia’s Attorney-General Kyam Maher said the change was part of broader reform.
“This measure is a small but important part of broader reforms we are pursuing in relation to sexual abuse that have included the criminalisation of stealthing and measures to reclassify the possession of child pornography as a serious indictable offence,” Mr Maher said.
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