
This post deals with sexual assault, and could be triggering for some readers.
In a historic step forward, the New South Wales government announced it will overhaul laws around sexual assault by introducing a requirement for "affirmative consent".
The new law, which passed through the upper house on Tuesday, states that consent must be communicated rather than assumed.
"The NSW Government's affirmative consent model sets clear boundaries for consensual sex, reinforces the basic principle of common decency that consent is a free choice involving mutual and ongoing communication, and reinforces that consent should not be presumed," said Mark Speakman, the Attorney General and Minister for Prevention of Domestic and Sexual Violence.
Watch: Saxon Mullins' 2018 Four Corners interview led to an investigation into NSW's consent laws. Post continues below.
Debate on the government's bill to reform the Crimes Act began in the upper house of NSW parliament last Friday, after the law was signed off by the lower house last week.
Saxon Mullins, the young woman whose traumatic experience was the catalyst for the years-long reform process, told AAP watching the debate unfold has been "almost indescribable".
"I'm just so pleased, of course, that this has gone through," she said.
Affirmative consent laws have passed in NSW. Every survivor and expert who helped this through changed the world today. Thank you. https://t.co/vDVBZTbMCQ
— Saxon Mullins (@SaxonAdair) November 23, 2021
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