*Age Of Consent & Legal Sexual Activity for the State of
22nd June 2001 Letter from Attorney General Rod Welford, in reply to my letter of 22nd May 2001. He again declines to do anything to further inform any agency or the public. He claims that it is sufficient that youth can contact a few existing legal centres (which may or may not have access to correct information) and one unofficial website (with recently corrected information).
The following is a full transcript. A jpg image of the original letter is stored at
www.queerradio.org/AOC220601.jpg
• Queensland Government
Attorney-General
Minister for Justice
The Honourable Rod Welford MP
In reply please quote:
2001/04234Your reference:
22 JUN 2001
Mr John Frame
82 Main Avenue
WAVELL HEIGHTS QLD 4012
Dear Mr Frame
Thank you for your letter dated 22 May 2001 about the age of consent.
I respect your strong commitment to this issue. However, as I have previously advised you, the Government does not intend to engage in generalised education campaign about the age of consent.
I would note that the Government, through the provision of funding to Legal Aid, assists in funding a number of specialised community legal centres that are available to provide legal advice to the community. There are a number of community legal centres (for example, the Logan Youth Legal Service and the Youth Advocacy Centre) that provide advice to young people.
Specifically, I would note that the Youth Advocacy Centre, on their website, gives this advice to young people
"You can have sex with a person without breaking the law if you are both 16 or over and you both want to do this. In Queensland, it is not an offence for two people of the same sex to have sex, if they are 16 or over. It is against the law for two people to have anal sex if either or both of them are under 18"
Community legal centres can also talk to young people about their concerns and provide them with the appropriate referrals to other organisations that can help them.
Such advice, that can address the concerns of a young person, in a specific situation, provides an effective means of communicating information and, with respect, a safer means than a generalised publicity campaign. I am sure that we all share the same goal of protecting the health and well-being of our young people.
I trust this information is of assistance.
Rod Welford MP
18th floor State Law Building
50 Ann Street Brisbane
GPO Box 149 Brisbane
Queensland 4001 Australia
Telephone +61 7 3239 3478
Facsimile +61 7 3220 2475
Email Attorney@ministerial.qld.gov.au
Website www.justice.qld.gov.au