Tasmania's Sexual Assault Support Service (SASS) has urged caution on federal government legislation that will allow child victims of sexual abuse to self-identify themselves in future.
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The government introduced a bill to made amendments to laws on sexual violence earlier this year which:
- gives more protection to vulnerable people involved in court proceedings as complainants or witnesses;
- makes evidence about sexual reputation inadmissible for all victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and places greater restrictions on evidence relating to sexual experience;
- and ensures victims and survivors can speak out about their experiences should they wish to do so, including through media organisations.
The bill will implement several recommendations of the 2017 Final Report of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and is under review by a Senate committee.
The committee is due to report later this month.
SASS acting-chief executive Sandi Doherty said while it welcomed allowing sexual abuse victims to self-identify and share their story, this enabled child complainants to self-identify where they have a letter from a medical practitioner or psychologist which stated that they understood the consequences of losing anonymity.
"SASS' concern is that this is not a significantly rigorous process to provide adequate protection for children in making a significant decision that, once taken, cannot be reneged," she said.
Ms Doherty said the committee was encouraged to consider additional safeguards, like a mandate that practitioners undertaking assessments of children must have experience in working which child sexual assault victim-survivors.
The Law Council of Australia in a submission to the committee said it supported measures that permitted victim-survivors from publishing self-identifying information or having it published on their behalf.
"The law council recognises that permitting victim-survivors to publish identifying material plays an important part of therapeutic justice, ownership and empowerment for victim-survivors," it said.