Sexual assault survivor advocates have strongly condemned suggestions it should be illegal not to report a rape to police.
Greens senator Larissa Waters asked experts about the proposed change during a public hearing into Australia's consent laws.
She referenced a submission Liberal senator Linda Reynolds made to an investigation into how Bruce Lehrmann's rape trial was handled.
Senator Reynolds called for amendments to the ACT Crimes Act to deter individuals from using the media or parliamentary forums in relation to an alleged criminal offence that should be the subject of the criminal justice processes.
She also pointed to a section of NSW law that made it an offence for anyone who knew or believed a serious, indictable offence had been committed and failed to report it to police.
Consent advocate Saxon Mullins said the former minister's comments were unbelievable.
"Survivors have lots of different experiences when they go through the justice system, and they'll have lots of different takeaways from it," she told the parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
"But the one thing that will always stay the same is that your agency has been taken away.
"To suggest that that should be done on your behalf and of some perverted view of what justice looks like is disgusting."
The head of Rape and Sexual Assault Research and Advocacy condemned the senator for making a "completely ridiculous" assertion.
"It's a gruelling and difficult thing to report sexual violence to anyone in your life, to your most trusted confidant, let alone to a police organisation that historically doesn't have a great track record," Rachael Burgin said.
"We strongly condemn those comments and question the ethos that got the senator to the point to make that statement."
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