Men who sneakily slip off condoms during sex could be jailed for life in the state of South Australia under a new law going through Parliament.
Legislation to criminalise so-called 'stealthing' was passed by the South Australian Legislative Council, the state's upper house which sits in Adelaide, on Wednesday.
It must now pass a vote in the lower House of Assembly before it is added to the statute books.
Connie Bonaros, a member of the Legislative Council for the SA Best party, said the "'repugnant and disgusting act of betrayal," as she called stealthing, should have been outlawed years ago.
"Under the new legislation, the removal of a condom during sex without the consent of the other person will now be a crime punishable by up to life imprisonment," Bonaros said.
The amendment to the Criminal Law Consolidation Act defines stealthing as when a "person agrees to engage in the activity because of a misrepresentation (whether express or implied) as to the use of a condom during the activity" — the "activity" presumably being sex.
Adelaide I am In You
South Australia Attorney-General Kyam Maher said the bill would bring the "insidious practice" under legal jurisdiction.
"There have been many calls from advocates to criminalise this under state law to make sure we're explicitly ruling this as a crime," Maher said, pointing out that Tasmania and the small Australian Capital Territory around the capital Canberra had already passed similar laws.
Bonaros has previously accused two other politicians, Sam Duluk and Tammy Franks, of sexual assault for allegedly slapping her on the behind. Duluk was put on trial on the charge but acquitted.
Famed Australian journalist and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange spent years under house arrest — and then political asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London — while Sweden sought his extradition for allegedly initiating a second round of sex with a women he was sleeping with without first donning a condom.
Assange was jailed in the maximum-security Belmarsh prison in South London for breaking his bail terms after the new Ecuadorean president evicted him in 2019. He now faces over 100 years in jail in the US on espionage charges after a London court approved his extradition while he was serving his sentence.