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 After almost 20 years of lobbying, legislation to equalise the age of consent at 16 for all NSW citizens was passed by the NSW Parliament in June 2003.
Before the reforms, the age of consent was 16 years for male-female and female-female sex, but 18 years for male-male sex.
A Bill is introduced… (again)
The Carr Government introduced the Crimes Amendment (Sexual Offences) Bill 2003 into the Legislative Assembly on 7 May 2003. In addition to equalising the age of consent at 16, the Bill also contained extensive child protection provisions and removed the previous ‘mistaken age’ defence.
The Lobby did not entirely support some aspects of the Bill. The removal of the ‘mistaken age’ defence, as an example, has the potential to result in injustice. It was our view that the Bill had the greatest chance of success if we did not oppose the additional provisions.
Even though this was a Government bill, the NSW Labor Party decided that party members would be allowed a conscience vote – an unheard of practice for a Government bill. The NSW Liberal Party also decided to allow a conscience vote, however the NSW National Party decided that they would vote as a block against the bill.
The GLRL swings into top gear
After years of lobbying, the introduction of the Bill saw the GLRL produce The Need for an Equal Age of Consent, a booklet sent to every Member of Parliament. It was hoped that the booklet would educate Members of Parliament about the issues related to an unequal age of consent and encourage them to vote for the Bill. The booklet also summarised The Age of Consent and Gay Men in NSW, a research report commissioned by the GLRL in 2001 into the detrimental effects of an unequal age of consent, authored by Dr Richard Roberts and Peter Maplestone from the University of NSW. GLRL representatives met with numerous Members of the Legislative Assembly and almost every Member of the Legislative Council for face-to-face lobbying.
The GLRL brought together a broad range of community organisations to form a strong community coalition in support of an equal age of consent. This included ACON, FPA Health, Australian Medical Association, PFLAG, NSW Teachers Federation, 2010 Gay and Lesbian Youth Services, NSW Young Labor and Young Liberals. It was the active support of these organisations that enabled the Lobby to convince parliamentarians, the wider public and the media that there was genuine support for an equal age of consent in the broader community.
Media campaign against the Bill
The day after the Attorney General, Mr Bob Debus, first mentioned the Bill in Parliament, the Daily Telegraph launched a campaign of opposition to the Bill. What followed were headlines such as ‘An age of moral risk’, ‘The case against gay sex law’ and ‘The dangers of making men out of boys overnight’. The Daily Telegraph even sought to draw a tenuous link between age of consent and the Carr Government’s proposed medically-supervised cannabis trial. Similarly, the radio shock jocks sought to sensationalise the debate by equating equalising the age of consent with child sex abuse and prostitution.
It quickly became apparent that our community needed to speak out in support of the Bill. Through our website, e-mails to members, a campaign specific e-mail distribution list and articles and advertisements in the Sydney Star Observer, the GLRL sought to mobilise the gay and lesbian community.
The community mobilisation, combined with the GLRL’s own media strategy, proved to be very effective. The Daily Telegraph was swamped with letters in support of equalising the age of consent. Two phone polls conducted by the Daily Telegraph also showed overwhelming support for the Bill. For every homophobic caller to talkback radio, there were callers speaking in support of equality. Almost every Member of Parliament who spoke on the Bill made reference to the large number of letters they had received. Upper House MPs in particular noted that there were many more letters in support than there were against. There is no doubt that for some MPs this community support was a deciding factor in their decision to vote ‘yes’.
The Bill is debated… and passes
Debate in the Legislative Assembly was characterised by impassioned speeches about the importance of equality before the law and sharply contrasting speeches that echoed homophobic attitudes of decades past. Despite the National Party’s hardline homophobic stance on the issue, Russell Turner, the National Party Member for Orange, in an inspiring display of conviction, crossed the floor to vote in favour of the Bill. Mr Turner, who has a gay son, spoke of the need to combat the fear and ignorance of homosexuality in our community. The Bill was passed by 54 votes to 32 votes.
The Legislative Council was always going to be the House where the Bill had the greatest chance of failure. Similar Bills had failed twice before in the Legislative Council and the third time, the Bill was sent to Committee to avoid a potential third failure. The intensive lobbying by the GLRL, other organisations, and members of our community resulted in the Bill passing 23 votes to 16. This included yes votes by 6 of the 9 Liberal Party members.
Although the campaign should have ended on a high note, given almost 20 years of lobbying for the reform, the final moment was marred by yet another diversion tactic by our opponents, bringing up unrelated allegations before the final reading. However, at 9:24pm on Tuesday 27 May, 2003 the Bill was passed with an eruption of cheers from a packed public gallery.
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