Recently, in Australia, the state of Victoria has enforced a new gag law surrounding sexual assault. The law means if a perpetrator is convicted, survivors are not allowed to speak about their experiences using the real identities of those involved, and if they speak up about it, they could face over 3000AUD (£1676) worth of fines or up to 4 months in jail.
So why was this law made?
The law was intended to make it easier for victims to remove court orders restricting them from using real identities if they chose to speak up about their experiences, but has instead done the opposite of what they were intending to do and has silenced survivors across the state. For survivors to speak up about their experiences, they must first receive a court order which is estimated to cost around 10,000AUD (£5523)- money which a lot of people would want to spend telling their story.
Thankfully, due to campaigns such as #LetUsSpeak, the Victorian Government recently announced that the law would go under review for reform after major backlash from across Australia. We can now only hope that the reform will help rather than silence Victorian survivors.
Written by Ella Klassen
Artwork by Aurora Brooks
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