Welcome reform will ensure victims of sexual, domestic, and family violence can seek appropriate support

Last Friday, the NSW Attorney General, the Hon. Mark Speakman SC MP, announced that the NSW Parliament had passed some much-anticipated reforms which ensure frontline workers, as well as friends or family of adults who disclose sexual and domestic violence, will no longer risk facing prosecution for respecting a victim's wishes to not report the crime.

The amendments relate to section 316 of the Crimes Act 1900, which requires a person who knows or believes that a serious indictable offence has been committed to report it to the police.

Under the previous legislation, failure to do so without reasonable excuse was an offence and carried a maximum penalty of up to five year’s imprisonment.

The reforms, which had widespread support in Parliament, will provide an exemption in adult cases of sexual or family violence offences where the individual does not want the matter reported to police.

This is a welcome and appropriate reform that will ensure victims of sexual, domestic, and family violence can seek appropriate support without the fear that their support worker must report the offence to the police or risk criminal prosecution.

Under these new laws, it will be considered a ‘reasonable excuse’ if the adult victim does not wish to report the offence to the police, thereby eliminating the risk of prosecution for those frontline workers supporting people affected by sexual, domestic, and family violence.

This also applies to other people who may receive information about such offences, including family, friends, members of a workplace or educational institution attended by the victim.

As the Law Society has previously stated, the reforms will mean that these people are not committing an offence merely by complying with the alleged victim’s wishes and these laws now reflect a trauma-informed approach, whereby an adult victim of a sexual or family violence offence is empowered to decide what action should be taken in response to the offence against them.

Richard Harvey, President, Law Society of NSW

< Go back