NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman said the government would carefully consider the report's 44 recommendations and respond next year.
"The present laws around consent,and the low conviction rates for sexual assault compared with other offences,may both contribute to the reluctance of victims to come forward,"Mr Speakman said.
Tasmanian barrister Greg Barns,SC,the national criminal justice spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance,said"the Tasmanian provision,on which this recommendation is based,has not increased prosecution or conviction rates for sexual assault"and the"flawed"recommendation would"lead to greater uncertainty for complainants and defendants".
He said a communicative model of consent was problematic because it failed"to take account of the nature and duration of the relationship between the parties and how those factors impact on how parties consent to sexual activity",and the"many cases where[consensual] sexual activity takes place without there being communication at the time".
Andrew Dyer,deputy director of the Sydney Institute of Criminology and senior lecturer at the University of Sydney law school,said it was"questionable"whether adopting the Tasmanian law would achieve any practical benefits,and the change also meant a person who withdrew consent would need to communicate it.
"There might be a person who freezes and for that reason doesn't communicate that withdrawal,"he said.
Mr Dyer questioned a proposal for an"extremely broad"provision negating consent based on a"fraudulent inducement",which the commission said likely would not extend to"puffery"such as lies about marital status. He said it could catch a range of unintended cases.
In 2018 the Berejiklian government started a community campaign on sexual consent dubbed"Make No Doubt" including outdoor advertisements stressing the need for explicit agreement to sex.
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