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04related terms
May 2026reviewed
In detail
How affirmative consent works in practice.
Affirmative consent describes the consent model in Victorian sexual offence law, reinforced by amendments to the Crimes Act 1958 that commenced in 2023. Consent means free and voluntary agreement. Under the affirmative consent model, a person is not taken to consent merely because they did not resist or did not say no, and an accused's belief in consent is not reasonable unless they said or did something to find out whether the other person consented. The law also sets out circumstances in which a person does not consent. Because consent is central to most sexual offence charges, the way it is defined directly affects how these matters are assessed and defended.
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