*Age Of
Consent & Legal Sexual Activity for the State of
6th
July 2011 Letter from the office of Attorney-General
Mr. Paul Lucas in reply
to my 17th May 2011 email. Senior Policy Advisor Tess Bishop reiterates that the Government has no
plans to act on equal age of consent reform, but this is also the first time
that any correspondence from the Government has included an attempt to argue
the case for their inaction. Sadly she merely states the obvious – that age of
consent laws exist to protect young children from harm, and states that the
Goss Labor Government set a higher minimum age for anal intercourse when it
otherwise decriminalised sex between men in 1990. She
fails to address the key reason why the age of consent should be equal for all
youth at 16 – which is that the Government’s own 1990 Parliamentary Criminal
Justice Committee on Reforms in Laws Relating To Homosexuality had
officially recommended that it be so (this is Recommendation 7, the only one of
9 Recommendations which was not applied in the resultant legislation).
The 1990 PCJC Report , on pages
44 – 50, justified Recommendation 7 by quoting from the testimonies of experts
and others who had participated in the Public Hearings which were held on 6th
August 1990 and 7th
August 1990. Recommendation 7 (supported also by
Chairman Peter Beattie) was that “ THE COMMITTEE
RECOMMENDS THAT THE AGE OF CONSENT FOR HOMOSEXUAL ACTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE
PRINCIPLES OF SEXUAL EQUALITY AND ANTI-DISCRIMINATION BE THE SAME FOR MALES AS
IT IS FOR FEMALES, IRRESPECTIVE OF WHETHER THE SEXUAL ACT IS HETEROSEXUAL OR
HOMOSEXUAL. (THIS PRINCIPLE IS HIGHLIGHTED IN POINT ONE ON PAGE 60 OF THE (Criminal
Justice) COMMISSION’S REPORT.)
To view a jpg image of the original
letter click here
Queensland Government
Office of the
Deputy Premier and Attorney-General
Minister for Local Government and Special Minister of State
Our ref: 537965/1; AG/11/02082
6 JUL 2011
Mr John Frame
82 Main Averune
WAVELL HEIGHTS QLD 4012
Dear Mr
Frame
Thank you for your email of 17
May 2011 to the Honourable Paul Lucas MP, Deputy
Premier and Attorney-General, Minister for Local Government and Special
Minister of State about age of consent laws in Queensland. The Deputy Premier
and Attorney-General has asked that I respond on his
behalf. I apologise for the delay in responding.
The age of consent is designed to
protect young and innocent children from physical and psychological harm caused
by engaging in sexual intercourse before they are mature enough to consent to
such activity. As there is no objective means of determining at what age the
age of consent should be set, since children mature and develop at different
rates, the law in Queensland has set a minimum age of 16 years for consent to
all sexual activity except anal intercourse which is 18 years.
Since 1990, when the Goss Labor
Government decriminalised anal intercourse between
consenting adults, the age of consent for anal intercourse has been set at 18
years.
I note that you hold strong and
passionate views on this issue. However, as advised on previous occasions, the
Government has no immediate plans to review or amend the law around the age of
consent.
Thank you for writing to the
Deputy Premier and Attorney-General about this issue. I trust this information
is of assistance.
Yours sincerely
Tess Bishop
Senior Policy Advisor
Level 12 Executive Building
100 George Street Brisbane 4000
GPO Box 15009 City East
Queensland 4002 Australia
Telephone +61 732244600
Facsimile +61 732244781
Email
deputypremierministerial.qldgov.au
ABN 65 959 415 158