John Smith wrote on Oct 31^st, 2015 at 5:09pm:


It depends on what state. However, in an situation involving an authority figure it is always 18.

Q) Should we Lower The Voting Age To 16?

A) No!

Aussie wrote on Oct 31^st, 2015 at 6:53pm:


Some lawyer you are!  If one of them is 'someone in authority' eg a teach, scout leader, minister priest or the same, the age is 18 and has been for a very long time.  There is also a 'restricted age of consent' which you seem equally unaware of which can be as low as 12 as long as both parties vary in age by no more than 2 years.

And I didn't need to google that as you will need to.

The legal age for consensual sex varies across Australian state and territory jurisdictions (see Table 1). The age of consent is 16 years of age in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Victoria and Western Australia. In Tasmania and South Australia the age of consent is 17 years of age. Queensland is the only state that makes a distinction between different forms of sexual activity and the age of consent. In Queensland, the age of consent for anal sex (referred to as sodomy in legislation) is 18 years of age, while the age of consent for all other sexual behaviour (described as carnal knowledge) is 16 years of age.

If a person is accused of engaging in sexual behaviour with someone under the legal age, there are various statutory defences available, which are outlined in legislation. While legislation varies in each state and territory, in general two types of defences are available (Cameron, 2007). The first type relates to whether the accused believed on reasonable grounds that the person with whom they engaged in sexual behaviour was above the legal age of consent. All jurisdictions (except New South Wales) have provisions for this defence in legislation; however, several variations exist regarding restrictions on the use of the defence according to the age of the alleged victim. The defence cannot be used if the victim was 10 years or younger at the time of the alleged offence in the Australian Capital Territory, 12 years or younger in Queensland and Victoria, 13 years or younger in Western Australia, 14 years or younger in the Northern Territory, and 16 years or younger in South Australia.

The second statutory defence relates to situations in which the two people are close in age. In Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory, engaging in sexual behaviour under the legal age can be defended if the defendant was not more than 2 years older, and in Western Australia not more than 3 years older, than the person against whom the offence is alleged to have been committed. In Tasmania it is a defence if the child is 15 years of age and the accused person was not more than 5 years older than the child, or if the child was above 12 years of age and the accused person was not more than 3 years older than the child. Details for other states can be found in Table 2.

In Victoria and Western Australia there is legal provision for defence if the accused can demonstrate they are lawfully married to the child. In Queensland, there are separate legal defences in the legislation relating to unlawful sodomy.

Although the legal age of consent throughout Australia is either 16 or 17 years of age, legislation in New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory makes it an offence for a person in a supervisory role to sexually engage with a person under their special care who is aged 16 or 17 years. A person in a supervisory role providing "special care" may include: a teacher, foster parent, religious official or spiritual leader, a medical practitioner, an employer of the child or a custodial official. For further information regarding sexual interaction with 16 and 17 years old under special care please see the relevant state or territory legislation.

Maria is correct

Kiron22 wrote on Oct 31^st, 2015 at 7:20pm:


that's how I read it too!

No no. Maria meant a specific kind of consent. That being the consent between a person in authority and the young person.