EVENT Launch of “Safe, Informed, Supported: Reforming Justice Responses to Sexual Violence”

Launch Event: 8:00am Thursday 13th March 2025

The Australian Law Reform Commission is pleased to host a launch event for Safe, Informed, Supported: Reforming Justice Responses to Sexual Violence on Thursday 13th March 2025. Streaming online from Melbourne, the ALRC will give an overview of the report, its findings and recommendations, as well as a panel discussion with expert guests.

ALRC President the Hon Justice Mordy Bromberg will be joined by Inquiry Commissioner the Hon Marcia Neave AO, and member of the Inquiry’s Expert Advisory Committee and Executive Director of With You We Can Sarah Rosenberg, with a special video message from former prime minister the Hon Julia Gillard AC. Moderating the discussion will be ABC journalist and presenter Patricia Karvelas.

Justice Mordy Bromberg faces the camera. He has silver hair, and wears a light shirt and dark jacket.

Justice Mordy Bromberg

Marcia Neave AO

Sarah Rosenberg

Patricia Karvelas

Event details

No need to RSVP for the stream. Just visit ALRC’s Youtube channel on the morning, or watch via Youtube video embed below.

The report

Commonwealth Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus KC MP tabled the Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) report Safe, Informed, Supported: Reforming Justice Responses to Sexual Violence on Thursday 6th March 2025.

This report is the final product of our 12 month Inquiry led by Commissioners the Hon Marcia Neave AO, Judge Liesl Kudelka and ALRC President the Hon Justice Mordy Bromberg. The report incorporates extensive research and wide-reaching consultation with people with lived experience, experts and key organisations. This included a lived-experience Expert Advisory Group established by the Attorney-General’s Department, primarily comprised of people who have experienced sexual violence, as well as advocates.

 

The Final Report of the Australian Law Reform Commission’s (ALRC) Inquiry into Justice Reponses to Sexual Violence has been tabled in parliament today. The report, Safe, Informed, Supported: Reforming Justice Responses to Sexual Violence, and its 64 recommendations are the culmination of a 12-month Inquiry.  

The ALRC has concluded that the justice system is currently failing to meet the twin goals of access to justice and accountability. The justice system is not supporting those who have experienced sexual violence to seek justice, nor holding those who use sexual violence to account.  

Sexual violence is one of the most widespread and serious harms confronting Australia. One in 5 women and 1 in 16 men have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. Despite this prevalence, fewer than 1 in 10 incidents of sexual violence are reported to police. Where there is engagement with the justice system it is usually short-lived. In at least some Australian jurisdictions, between 75-85% of reports to police do not proceed to charge, and even fewer reports proceed to court. Once in court, many people report experiencing the justice system as retraumatising.   

The ALRC’s report shines a spotlight on under-engagement with the justice system as the primary issue that needs to be addressed. If people who have experienced sexual violence do not feel sufficiently safe, informed and supported to access and utilise the justice system, the justice system’s critical role in responding to and preventing sexual violence cannot be realised.   

ALRC President the Hon Justice Mordy Bromberg has thanked Commission staff and the Commissioners for the Inquiry the Hon Marcia Neave AO and Judge Liesl Kudelka, and welcomed the tabling of the Inquiry’s final report. 

Quote from ALRC President the Hon Justice Mordy Bromberg: 

“Overwhelmingly, people who have experienced sexual violence do not engage with the justice system for understandable reasons including fear, lack of trust or lack of information and support. The community rightly expects, and the rule of law requires, a justice system that is safe and accessible, yet we heard time and again from people who do not trust the system enough to engage in the first place, or were let down when they did. 

This Inquiry provides a critical national and system-wide view of the problems with the justice system’s response to sexual violence, and gives government a detailed roadmap for how to fix it. Our recommendations go to addressing barriers to engagement; increasing system accountability; avoiding retraumatisation; countering myths and misconceptions about sexual violence; and creating new justice options. Importantly, these reforms can be delivered without compromising the fundamental rights of an accused person to a fair trial.  

“I acknowledge and welcome the Government’s announcement today of additional funding for measures in line with our report. Implementing the ALRC’s recommendations will better ensure that people who have experienced sexual violence are able to access the justice system in a way that is safe, informed and supported. Implementation will diminish retraumatisation and provide to people who have experienced sexual violence additional justice options that meet their individual needs and interests. The justice system must be reformed if it is to play its critical role in addressing and preventing sexual violence.”

The ALRC’s 64 recommendations would improve the justice system’s response to sexual violence by:  

  • Addressing barriers for people who have experienced sexual violence to access and engage with the justice system;  
  • Strengthening the justice system’s accountability and processes, including by avoiding retraumatisation and countering myths and misconceptions about sexual violence; and 
  • Expanding justice pathways and the remedies available, including through civil and restorative justice pathways.  

BACKGROUND 

The ALRC’s inquiry was established by the Attorney-General on 23 January 2024. 

During the Inquiry, the ALRC received 220 submissions from individuals and organisations, and undertook 126 consultations, involving more than 384 consultees. The Inquiry was also supported by an Australian Government appointed Expert Advisory Group comprised of people with experience of sexual violence and advocates, providing critical input into this complex and sensitive Inquiry. 

FURTHER INFORMATION 

 

ENDS 

 

For more information or to request interviews contact: 

Jez Hunghanfoo 
Director of Communications and Engagement 
Australian Law Reform Commission 
P: 03 9959 5313 
E: comms@alrc.gov.au

 

The Hon. Marcia Neave AO, and Judge Liesl Kudelka of the South Australian District Court will lead the ALRC’s Justice’s Response to Sexual Violence inquiry which was announced this week by Attorney General Mark Dreyfus KC MP. Both appointees bring with them deep expertise and experience of the justice system, particularly as it relates to issues involving sexual violence.

Hon. Marcia Neave AO

Marcia Neave has had a distinguished career having served as a judge, commissioner, law reformer, public policy maker, and academic. After nine years on the Supreme Court of Victoria, Court of Appeals Division, she was appointed to the role of Commissioner of the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence. In 2021 she was named as President and Commissioner of the Commission of Inquiry into the Tasmanian Government’s Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Institutional Settings.

She was the inaugural Chair of the Victorian Law Reform Commission which in 2004 recommended substantial changes to criminal laws and procedures dealing with sexual assault. She has also been Professor at ANU, Adelaide, and Monash Universities.

Judge Liesl Kudelka

Judge Kudelka was appointed as a Judge of the District Court of South Australia in October 2017. She has 25 years of experience in the criminal jurisdiction as a judge, barrister, and prosecutor. 

In 2020, Judge Kudelka prepared a detailed written proposal for a pilot Priority Programme in the District Court of South Australia to improve justice responses for alleged victims of sexual assault and domestic violence by implementing new processes to reduce delays in proceedings. Judge Kudelka implemented the programme and has been managing it since May 2021.

Amongst her many professional achievements, Judge Kudelka was a prosecutor in the Office of The Director of Public Prosecutions in South Australia, as well as working on the discussion paper ‘Review of South Australian Rape and Sexual Assault Law’ in 2006. She also acted as Counsel Assisting ‘the Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry: Allegations of Sexual Abuse & Death from Criminal Conduct’ (SA) in 2007 – 2008. 

Marcia Neave AO (left) and Judge Liesl Kudelka (right) will lead the inquiry for the ALRC.

Inquiry into Justice Responses to Sexual Violence

The ALRC will take a take a trauma-informed, holistic, whole-of-systems, and transformative approach to its inquiry, whilst considering matters raised for reform and detailed in prior reports and inquiries.

The inquiry will consult with relevant stakeholders across Australia, including but not limited to:

  • people who have experienced sexual violence.
  • people and organisations representing population cohorts that are overrepresented in sexual violence statistics.
  • state and territory government and law enforcement agencies.
  • policy and research organisations.
  • community service providers; and
  • the legal profession including prosecution and defence lawyers.

The inquiry is due to provide its final report to the Attorney-General in January of 2025.

 

Further information on the work of the ALRC:  https://www.alrc.gov.au/

 

The Australian Law Reform (ALRC) has begun its inquiry into the justice system’s response to sexual violence.

Attorney-General, the Honourable Mark Dreyfus KC MP, has referred the inquiry to the ALRC with the aim of strengthening and harmonising sexual assault and consent laws.

The referral asks the ALRC to promote and consider just outcomes for people who have experienced sexual violence, including minimising re-traumatisation.

The inquiry’s terms of reference require the ALRC to examine a range of issues including:

  • Laws and frameworks about evidence, court procedures/processes and jury directions.
  • Laws about consent.
  • Policies, practices, decision-making, and oversight and accountability mechanisms for police and prosecutors.
  • Training and professional development for judges, police, and legal practitioners to enable trauma-informed and culturally safe justice responses.
  • Support and services available to people who have experienced sexual violence, from the period prior to reporting to the period after the conclusion of formal justice system processes.
  • Alternatives to criminal prosecution, including restorative justice, civil claims, compensation schemes, and specialist court approaches.

The ALRC will take a take a trauma-informed, holistic, whole-of-systems, and transformative approach to its inquiry, whilst considering matters raised for reform and detailed in prior reports and inquiries.

The inquiry will consult with relevant stakeholders across Australia, including but not limited to:

  • people who have experienced sexual violence.
  • people and organisations representing population cohorts that are overrepresented in sexual violence statistics.
  • state and territory government and law enforcement agencies.
  • policy and research organisations.
  • community service providers; and
  • the legal profession including prosecution and defence lawyers.

The ALRC has been asked to provide its final report to the Attorney-General by 22 January 2025.

You can find the Terms of Reference for the inquiry here: https://www.alrc.gov.au/inquiry/justice-responses-to-sexual-violence/terms-of-reference/

Further information on the work of the ALRC:  https://www.alrc.gov.au/