Beyond 'yes' and 'no': Structural inequality and the law of rape

The AAWAA Women’s Advocate · Dec 4, 2025 · 10m

In this episode, Emma is joined by Lucy and Liv to discuss their formal submission to the statutory review of sexual consent laws. In 2021, NSW introduced landmark "affirmative consent" reforms. But four years on, are they actually delivering justice for women? The team unpacks why the current legal definition of consent—"free and voluntary agreement"—is fundamentally flawed in a patriarchy. The discussion explores how the law fails to recognise the reality of coercive control, why the "reasonable steps" test still allows men to negotiate away a woman's "no,&#34…