*Age Of Consent & Legal Sexual Activity for the State of Queensland, Australia - A campaign to remove our Sodomy Law (which was enacted in 1990).

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12th May 2008 Email to Tim Herbert, Senior Policy Advisor to Queensland Attorney-General Kerry Shine. I refer to his 12^th May 2008 emailed response to my own emails dated 12 April 2008 and 16April 2008. Tim’s very brief response merely reiterated that the Government has “no immediate plans to amend the existing law” – he did not respond to my request for actual reasons for their inaction. In this email I ask, once more, for the specific reasoning held by the Government for their refusal to enact an equal age of consent, which places Queensland youth – alone in all of Australia – at increased risk of abuse, self-harm, suicide and sexually transmitted disease infection (including HIV).

----- Original Message -----

From: John Frame

To: Attorney - SMTP

Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 11:24 AM

Subject: attn Senior Policy Advisor Tim Herbert

To: Senior Policy Advisor Tim Herbert

Your Reference: 506773/1 J/08/

Dear Tim,

Thank you for your brief advice today in which you reiterate the Bligh Government's often repeated position that they have no plans to bring Queensland law into line with the rest of Australia in regard to the equal protection and support of youth through equal age of consent reform.

However my queries have not been as to whether the Bligh Government might be planning to enact reform, but rather as to the specific reasons why they are delaying any action. Since 2003 Queensland has been the only Australian state or territory in which there is not an equal age of consent. Why are Queensland youth, alone in Australia, deserving of the discrimination which was identified by Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Susan Booth in her 15th July 2005 letter to the Attorney-General and the Premier? (http://www.queerradio.org/AOC150705_ADCQ.htm)

I believe that if the Bligh Government is to feel in any way morally content in maintaining discrimination against youth which is known to increase the risk of abuse, self-harm, suicide and sexually transmitted infection (including HIV), then the Government must have the courage and honesty to reveal those reasons in detail.

In order to hold any credibility the reasoning needs to be much more substantial than the only justification offered so far, which is that "The issue of the age of consent is a vexed one and one in which there are deeply held and opposing views"  (as per http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/EPetitions_QLD/responses/421-05.pdf )    

I believe that the Government's inaction is in itself an action to choose to maintain severe and undue discrimination against Queensland youth.

I welcome a response with detailed reasoning for the Government's chosen inaction.

Yours sincerely,

John Frame
jvframe@ozemail.com.au
www.queerradio.org/AgeOfConsent.htm
Ph: 07 3350 1562 / mobile: 0409 501 561
Post: 82 Main Avenue, Wavell Heights 4012, QLD, Australia.

----"There is no substitute for equality"----