The Council has been asked to review sentencing practices for sexual assault and rape offences in Queensland and we would like to hear from you

The Attorney-General has asked the Council to look at the sentences courts give people who are convicted of rape and sexual assault and tell her if any changes to the law are needed. We have to report back by 16 September 2024 and will then release the final report publicly  on our website shortly thereafter.

We are only looking at the sentencing of adults (that is people who were adults when they were sentenced). This is because different laws apply to people who are sentenced as children.

To help us decide if we should recommend any changes, we would like to hear from you to let us know what you think. Submissions will close 10:00am on Monday 22 April 2024.

You can answer all, some or none of the questions asked and issues raised in the General Community Summary or the Consultation Paper: Issues and Questions.

You may want to tell us about other issues that you know about.

We will carefully consider all submissions.

If you make a submission, let us know if your submission is:

• public – meaning it may be published with your name or organisation and we may refer to it in our final report, OR
• confidential – for the information of the Council only.

If you do not tell us your submission is confidential, we will treat it as public.

If you are happy for us to publish and refer to your submission, but you want us to remove your personal information, including your name, and any other identifying information before we do this, please let us know. We call this an anonymised public submission.

If you do not include any information that allows us to verify your identity, we call this an anonymous submission. The Council accepts anonymous submissions but will not publish or refer to them.

In some cases, we may decide not to publish a public submission or remove some content prior to publication. The Council will not publish any submission (or part of a submission) that:

• does not protect personal privacy and that of others. For example, if the submission contains personal information about someone else
• breaches the law
• promotes a product or a service
• makes defamatory comments
• expresses discriminatory, abusive or threatening sentiments
• uses obscene or offensive language
• does address issues relevant to our review.

Privacy

The Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council is collecting your personal information, including your name, the organisation you represent, your email address and your opinions to consider your submissions to the Terms of Reference on sexual violence and domestic violence offences. Your personal information will not be used or disclosed outside of the Council unless the use or disclosure is otherwise authorised or required by law. The Council will manage your personal information in accordance with the Information Privacy Act 2009.

For more information, please read our Privacy Policy.