*Age Of Consent & Legal Sexual Activity for the State of
1st
July 2009 Email to
all
I pose two
questions:
(1) As Members of Parliament, regardless of your
personal moral conviction, you are all mature men and women. How many of you
would reasonably expect that 16 and 17 year olds who are living as a
couple would not be engaging in sexual intercourse?
(2) How many of you would expect that it would be fair
for young same sex couples in
----- Original Message -----
From: John Frame
To: (The Premier, Attorney-General, to each individual Member of Queensland
Parliament and to the Courier Mail)
Sent: Wednesday, July 01, 2009 2:08 PM
Subject: from today, 1st July 2009,
Re: from today, 1st July 2009,
equal
age of consent reform in
On several occasions over the last few years I have contacted every
Queensland MP urging full awareness and reform action to amend Queensland's
grossly discriminatory unequal age of consent. The current law criminalises
sexual intercourse for same sex male couples until they are both 18. That law
was passed by Goss Labor in 1990 in direct contradiction of the majority
recommendation for a truly equal age of consent at 16 made in the October
1990 Report by the all-party Parliamentary Criminal Justice Committee
which was Chaired by Peter Beattie (as per the Report page 49 of http://www.queerradio.org/PCJC_law_reform_report_October_1990.pdf).
Federal law reforms which take effect from today will apply the same
commitments and rights to all Australians, making no distinction
between same sex couples and opposite sex couples (except in regard to
marriage). The promotional slogan prominently advertised by Centrelink has
been "COUPLES ARE COUPLES". However in
Here are two questions for you:
(1) As Members of Parliament, regardless of your personal moral
conviction, you are all mature men and women. How many of you would reasonably
expect that 16 and 17 year olds who are living as a couple would not
be engaging in sexual intercourse?
(2) How many of you would expect that it would be fair for young
same sex couples in
The higher minimum age for anal intercourse was passed by Goss Labor in
1990 as a "behind closed doors" consolation for a small number
of Labor MP's who had expressed opposition to the decriminalisation
of sex between men. It was a bad law which pandered to ignorance and was based
purely on bigotry. It offered no youth any extra protection, and
only caused harm by actively discriminating against same sex
attracted male youth.
In July 2005 Queensland AntiDiscrimination Commissioner Susan Booth
wrote to the Premier and Attorney-General advising that reform was
urgently required to allow a truly equal age of consent at 16. (see http://www.queerradio.org/AOC150705_ADCQ.htm )
However the Queensland Government has so far ignored the
Commissioner's recommendation. Since 2007 the only statements made by the
Premier and Attorney-General have been limited to saying that they have
"no plans for reform". They have refused to offer any reasoning
for that stance - a stance which is insupportable when you consider that since
at least 2008 Queensland Labor's Policy Platform, Section 7.9 of the
Justice and Governance Chapter, has been: "7.9
Labor will ensure uniformity of age among laws relating to the age of consent
for lawful sexual activity;"
On 18th October 2008 Qld Labor's Kingston Regional Conference
passed a resolution calling for the Government to act on that Policy - and the
online record shows that a response is still outstanding.
Since it is clearly Queensland Labor's own written official Policy to
act on equal age of consent reform, when will the Queensland
Government bring this state into line with the rest of
The last attempt the Queensland Government made to fix this law was
in Labor's 1995 Revised Criminal Code, which had set a truly
equal age of consent at 16. It is truly tragic that the Code was repealed
in 1996 by the Borbidge Nationals led Coalition - who then reinstated
and regressively revamped the 1899 Code. In the intervening 14
years public attitudes on social equity have progressed
enormously. It's time one more determined effort was made to
fix this law - especially now that Federal law tells young same sex couples
they are equal, while Queensland law tells them they are criminals.
I welcome your response and urgently request your support for reform
action.
All my information, resource data and correspondence since 2000 is
stored via:
http://www.queerradio.org/AgeOfConsent.htm
Yours sincerely,
John Frame
jvframe@ozemail.com.au
http://www.queerradio.org/JohnFrame.html
Ph: 07 3350 1562 / mobile: 0409 501 561
Post:
----"There is no substitute for equality"----