What are the new laws on sexual consent in QLD?

Queensland has fundamentally overhauled its laws regarding sexual offences, shifting to an ‘affirmative consent’ standard.

Under these new laws, consent strictly involves free and voluntary agreement to the specific sexual act. The law clearly dictates that consent is not given if a person:

• Does not say or do anything (silence is not consent).
• Is asleep, unconscious, or heavily intoxicated.
• Agrees because of threats, fear, or a power imbalance.

Furthermore, if you are accused of an offence, the old defence of ‘honest mistake of fact’ (believing the person consented) now requires that you took active, reasonable steps to ascertain that consent was present. Because the legal threshold for conviction is lower under the new laws, experienced criminal defence is more critical than ever.