Australia's consent laws to be put under the microscope

Sexual consent laws could be made more consistent across jurisdictions with experts, advocates and support services to give their input at key hearings this week.

A senate committee is putting existing laws under the microscope as part of a push for reform to strengthen protections for survivors, increase consent education and examine justice system responses to sexual crimes.

Investigative journalist Jess Hill and Teach Us Consent founder Chanel Contos will give evidence at the committee's first hearing on Tuesday.

The Grace Tame Foundation, Our Watch and the Centre for Women's Safety and Wellbeing are also among the organisations set to appear next week.

Many submissions call for consistent laws across the country, including a standardised age of consent, which is 16 in most jurisdictions and 17 in South Australia and Tasmania.

Representatives from Universities Australia will also appear before the committee, with Greens spokesperson for women and leader in the Senate Larissa Waters saying the sector needs to lift its game.

"Universities have a clear responsibility to provide a safe environment for students," she said.

"With 275 sexual assaults in a university setting each week, it's clear they are failing."

Senator Walters lashed out at Universities Australia's decision to scrap a respectful relationship campaign which received federal funding when it was launched.

She said she would raise the issue later in the week.

"Allowing the prudish nonsense of a minority of vice-chancellors to shelve a government-funded campaign is embarrassing enough, but Universities Australia attempting to hide the decision is outrageous," she said.

"If Universities Australia don't want to provide sexual consent education to the adults on its campuses, it should hand back the $1.5 million it was provided to do so."

Advocates are also calling for a law requiring active communication of consent.

This is known as "affirmative consent" and means silence or lack of resistance cannot be interpreted as consent.

NSW, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT have all adopted some form of communicative or affirmative consent laws while WA, SA and the NT have not.

Legal Aid NSW considers consent laws across Australia to be consistent in many important aspects.

The group is recommending consistency in age laws, further funding for education campaigns and specialised sexual assault training for police, prosecutors, legal practitioners and the judiciary.

No to Violence, which works with male family violence perpetrators to change their behaviour, wants law reform to recognise "stealthing" as a sexual assault offence.

The practice involves a person removing a condom during sex without the other person's consent or knowledge and is illegal in NSW, Victoria, the ACT, SA, Queensland and Tasmania.

The organisation called for any reforms to be complemented and supported by a victim-survivor-centred response.

The Law Council of Australia supports a national evaluation of sexual consent laws across jurisdictions.

It said conflicting human rights created tensions for reform but the fundamental principles underpinning the justice process must be maintained.

This included the presumption of the right to innocence and the right to silence.

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