Scarlet Alliance submission on the draft Criminal Code Amendment Bill 2022 on February 18, 2022.
“The Criminal Code Amendment Bill 2022 proposes to implement a provision that clarifies ‘stealthing’ as a negation of consent under the Criminal Code Act. Scarlet Alliance supports this development in Tasmanian consent law reform, as instances of stealthing can affect our health, safety and wellbeing at work. We are, however, concerned with the current wording of the amendment, and we urge the Department to ensure that the onus of communicating about and representing condom use is placed on the perpetrator of stealthing, rather than the victim/survivor. The efficacy of the proposed amendment and its accessibility to sex workers will also be compromised by the current Tasmanian legislation that criminalises some aspects of sex work. Criminalisation and the associated sex work stigma levied against sex workers form major barriers to reporting sexual violence and greatly affect our relationships with police, social services and the criminal justice system.”
