Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

As I said in my first answer, the intention would be that courts would rely on the ordinary meaning of the term 'consent', and that is generally understood as 'free and/or voluntary decision or agreement'. I remind Senator Cash that this is set out in the explanatory material for the bill. The point about cross-examination is valid, and, as I said in my previous answer, there are frameworks that exist at state and territory level to deal with the evidence of alleged victims of sexual offences.