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Bishop: Gay consent bill "opens a Pandora's box"

By Chris Lindsay

The NSW government is “opening a real Pandora’s box” with its move to lower the age of consent for homosexual relationships from 18 to 16, says the Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Bishop Michael Malone.

Children of 16 do not have the maturity to be fully responsible for their actions in regard to sexuality, he said.

“To reduce the age of consent to 16 is to reduce the sense of responsibility that goes along with it,” the bishop said.

“I am also concerned about the whole area of child protection.

“At 16 it is too easy for children to be manipulated into sexual acts against their will.”

The Archbishop of Sydney, Dr George Pell, has described the move to lower the age of consent for homosexual activity as ‘regrettable’.

“Parliament should not enshrine the ideological claim that homosexual and heterosexual activity are morally equivalent,” he said.

“It sounds a wrong note and makes the task of parents more difficult.”

Bishop Malone agrees with the archbishop “that the legislation can be seen to be equating heterosexual and homosexual activities”.

He said: “This is sending a wrong message to the community. Obviously the homosexual lobby is very strong and has been pushing for this.

“All ages of consent are arbitrary, and they can go up as well as down.

“The age of consent for marriage used to be 18 for boys and 16 for girls. Now it is 16 for both.

“Rather than lower the age of consent to 16, I would rather see it go up to 18 for both sexes.”

Bishop Malone said there is a huge difference in maturity between 16 and 18.

“Once the age of responsibility was 21, and then the age of voting was reduced to 18 and everything else came down to 18,” he said.

“Now it has gone lower, and this is a matter of concern to me.”

Anglican leaders also oppose the move.

The Legislative Assembly approved the bill by 54 votes to 32.

Paul Gibson, Labor MLA for Blacktown, believes the vote in the Legislative Council will be closer, but that the bill “might just sneak through”.

Mr Gibson, a Catholic, said during debate in the Lower House that age of consent legislation was not about equality between the sexes, but about finding the best way to look after young people.

“I am a practising Catholic and I take my religion seriously,” he said. “The age of consent is there to protect children from exploitation. That forms the rationale for retaining the age of consent laws.

“The question of what is the proper and best age for consent is very hard to determine.

“On religion, ethics and morals we all have different opinions.

“It is not good enough for people in this chamber to say that the main reason to change the legislation is that it discriminates between males and females.

“South Australia and Western Australia have different ages of consent to NSW.

“When one considers that the age of consent varies around the world from 12 in Malta to 21 in other areas, I do not know how it can be said that our legislation is discriminatory.

“It is a poor argument to suggest that we should change the law because it is discriminatory.

“It is a medical fact that boys mature two years later than girls.

“There is no doubt that our society treats 16-year-olds as children.

“They are not allowed to hold a driver’s licence, they are not allowed to watch explicit sex scenes in R-rated movies; they cannot buy cigarettes, they cannot enter financial contracts and they cannot get married without parental consent. If we are so concerned about discrimination, why not raise the age of consent for females to 18?”

Mr Gibson’s vehement opposition led to the withdrawal of a clause in the legislation which would have retrospectively decriminalised homosexual acts with boys between 16 and 18 which occurred before the legislation was changed.

“It was a Dolly Dunn clause as far as I am concerned,” Mr Gibson said, referring to a now jailed paedophile who preyed on young teenage boys.

Chris Hartcher (Lib, Gosford) told Parliament that the Wood Royal Commission report dealing with paedophilia had stated that physical and emotional development was said to occur about two years later in boys than girls, so that extra time should be allowed for boys to determine their sexual identity and preference.

“I believe the protection of children is of far greater importance than the important principle of equity,” he said.

Richard Amery (Lab, Mt Druitt) said: “The bill provides that a man of, say, 40 or 50 would be able to have sexual intercourse, with consent, with a 16-year-old boy - but he would not be able to take the boy to a bar for a drink, and he would be charged if he supplied the boy with a cigarette. That is an absurd provision.”

Michael Richardson (Lib, The Hills) said the bill was about the age at which teenagers may engage in sexual acts on equal terms with their partners.

“That age, if the partner is perhaps in his 30s or 40s, is certainly not 16.

“At 16, boys may think they are immortal, they may be strong and fit and superficially tough, but they are at a stage of great vulnerability in their lives, an age at which they may be easy prey for older men.”