Harrison James

We have held up a mirror to the country and asked, when we are confronted with horrific violence, why is it that we reach for language that wants to soften it?

Why are we calling child sex offenders champions of young people?

Why are rapists being described as top blokes?

Yeah, thanks so much for having me on today, Chris.

The Your Reference Ain't Relevant campaign has been working with attorneys general across the country and we've seen the law pass or be announced and set to pass in four jurisdictions.

So New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT.

The Your Reference Ain't Relevant campaign passed the New South Wales Parliament and

it really is a win for victims and survivors of sexual violence.

And essentially what's been abolished is the provision of good character references in sexual violence cases.

So essentially if someone is convicted in a court of law in New South Wales,

of either child sexual abuse or rape or any other act of sexual violence.

They cannot present a reference from their friends, family, colleagues or anything like that that attests to their so-called good character.

I've sat in courts before with victim survivors and have had to hear, as a survivor of child sexual abuse and the person who lived through that trauma, had to hear their perpetrator being lauded as a champion of young people

And it's so disheartening to hear things like that.

And it's a gaslight of victims and survivors and the pain that they've gone through.

And, you know, four years ago, this was just a conversation between survivors, but now it's law in New South Wales.

And it honestly feels surreal to say that out loud.

And that's what the campaign was striving to do because we think there should be absolutely no opportunity for a convicted child sex offender or a rapist to have those good attributes presented to a court.

And there's a myriad of other things that a judge can take into account as well, things like prospects of rehabilitation, whether they plead guilty or not, so that there is factors where the judge is still able to see the whole person that they are sentencing in front of them, but also...

It creates a more trauma-informed system for victim survivors who don't have to sit in court and hear their perpetrator lauded as that.