New South Wales

This Act overturned Division 12 of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), which criminalised obtaining, performing, or otherwise assisting an abortion. Abortion is now legal in New South Wales until 22 weeks of pregnancy. To procure an abortion after 22 weeks, the procedure must be performed in a hospital by a specialist practitioner in consultation with a second practitioner. Medical providers who have conscientious objections to abortion must provide patients with information about where they can receive an abortion. 

Section 22A, Part 2A of the Act provides that a person sexually harasses another person if “the person makes an unwelcome sexual advance, or an unwelcome request for sexual favours, to the other person, or the person engages in other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature in relation to the other person, in circumstances in which a reasonable person, having regard to all the circumstances, would have anticipated that the other person would be offended, humiliated or intimidated.”  Part 2A sets out various prohibitions against the harassment of employees, commission agents, contract worke

The Act aims to prevent, ensure accountability for, and apply standards set by the United Nations and the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women to domestic violence.

Repealed  * Division 10 of the Crimes Act prohibited and defined sexual violence against adults and children. Division 10 stated that a person consents to sexual intercourse if the person freely and voluntarily agrees (§ 61HE(2)). As provided in section 61HE(3), a perpetrator was deemed to know that the other person does not consent if they have actual knowledge, are reckless as to consent, or had no reasonable belief that the other person consented.

Division 10A concerns sexual servitude, which is defined as “the condition of a person who provides sexual services and who, because of the use of force or threats is not free to cease providing sexual services, or is not free to leave the place or area where the person provides sexual services.” Section 80D provides for up to 15 years’ imprisonment for any person causing (willfully or recklessly) or attempting to cause sexual servitude (and up to 20 years if the victim is under 18 or cognitively impaired).  Section 80E provides for up to 15 years for any person conducting a business i

On June 21, 2018, the NSW Parliament passed the Act to supplement existing criminal legislation both at the NSW (e.g., Crimes Act 1900 and Human Tissue Act 1983) and Commonwealth levels (e.g., the Criminal Code Act 1995).  The Act defines “modern slavery” as “any conduct involving the use of any form of slavery, servitude or forced labour to exploit children or other persons taking place in the supply chains of government agencies or non-government agencies.”  The Act provides for an Anti-slavery Com

The Act amends the Public Health Act 2010 No 127.  It provides for 150-metre “safe access zones” around reproductive health clinics, which are intended to protect the safety and well-being of people entering and leaving such clinics, including employees.  The Act creates offenses punishable with imprisonment for interfering with access to clinics (§ 98C), causing actual or potential distress or anxiety to persons in safe access zones (§ 98D), or for taking/distributing photographs of people in safe access zones (§ 98E).  The Act also contains exemptions under § 98F, which sta

In his initial trial, a jury found the accused guilty of the crime of sexual intercourse without consent.  He appealed and was granted a retrial, which was a bench trial (no jury).  The focus of the retrial was whether the complainant had consented and, if not, whether the accused knew.  The complainant (then 18) and the accused (then 21) met at a Sydney nightclub.  Soon after meeting, and after having danced and kissed on the dance floor, the accused anally penetrated the complainant in an alleyway behind the club.  During the retrial, the court did not believe tha

The case concerns the defendants, a married couple, who kept five Thai women as slaves in a secret room in the basement of their licensed brothel in Sydney. The defendants purchased the Thai women through contacts in Thailand (for between AUD 12,500 – 15,000). Upon arriving in Australia, four of the women were informed that they owed between AUD 35,000 and 45,000 that they had to repay by working in the brothel (one of the victims was told about the debt in Thailand). The defendants confiscated the women’s passports and kept them in locked confinement either at the brothel or

The accused pled guilty to one count of conducting a business involving sexual servitude, in contravention of section 270.6(2) of the Criminal Code Act 1995.  Between August 2005 and March 2008, the accused recruited and facilitated the placement of 11 Thai women in brothels in various Australian cities.  Each of the women (except for those who worked for one particular brothel) transferred a portion of their net earnings to the accused to repay the debts they were told they owed.  She was sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment.