CANBERRA Liberals Leader Elizabeth Lee will today (April 22) present a bill to the ACT Legislative Assembly to explicitly outlaw the heinous act of stealthing – the non-consensual removal of a condom during sex.

Tabling of the Crimes (Stealthing) Amendment Bill 2021 comes after a recent joint study by the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre and Monash University found that one in three women and nearly one in five men in Australia have reported being victims of stealthing.

Ms Lee described these statistics as “staggering”, saying: “Stealthing risks both physical and psychological health, including the transmission of sexually transmitted infections and disease, unplanned pregnancies, depression, anxiety and in some cases post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It is an appalling thing to do to any woman; any man; any person. Stealthing completely erodes the trust that a person can put in someone during the most vulnerable of moments. It is a violation of dignity and autonomy.

“It can be a very traumatic thing to experience. It can take away a person’s self-determination, their agency, and leave them feeling completely vulnerable.

“My bill will amend the existing consent provision within the Crimes Act to expressly define stealthing as a factor that negates consent.

“This bill is about making our laws clearer, our community safer, and making our voice loud and clear that ‘yes’ means ‘yes’ and ‘no’ means ‘no’.”

Recently, Ms Lee said a man was convicted of rape in New Zealand, after he removed a condom during sex without the woman’s consent.

This conviction sets a new precedent of recognising stealthing in criminal law in New Zealand, and with my bill, Canberra too can make it clear that stealthing will and should be illegal in the ACT, she said.

“As the issue of stealthing has been forced into the public eye, it is clear that our laws are not doing enough to address this heinous practice. It is a relatively new area within criminal law, and it is unclear whether it is illegal in the ACT,” she said.

“This is an opportunity for the ACT to be at the forefront of these reforms and legislate proactively, instead of allowing more women and men to fall victim to such a heinous act.”