Ending Sexual Violence Hub
Keep counselling notes private
Important win for survivors: In April 2026, Victoria’s Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny MP announced that the Victorian Government would strengthen protections so counselling records and health information cannot be used in court without consent.
Victim survivors of sexual violence should have the right to recover without fear.
Specialist sexual assault counselling is about making sense of what happened, not proving that it did.
Counsellors make notes during sessions to help them keep track of what is being discussed but in Victoria, people accused of sexual violence can seek these notes as part of the legal process.
Seeking justice is already often a scary, isolating and traumatic experience. Using confidential counselling notes to undermine survivors can cause real harm and stop people from reporting or even seeking counselling.
It’s an unnecessary cost to the government, services and survivors
Specialist sexual assault services divert valuable resources away from frontline service delivery to fight subpoenas (orders from the Court) for confidential counselling files. Our members services will never stop fighting these orders.
For the most part, people who are accused of sexual violence want these records so that they can use the information contained in them to undermine a victim survivor’s credibility. For example, pointing to drug or alcohol use to suggest that a victim survivor has poor character or that their memory of events cannot be relied upon.
Specialist sexual assault counselling is about helping victim survivors to make sense of, and recover from, what happened.
The solution is a model called ‘absolute privilege’
We want to adopt a model where there is an absolute privilege over victim survivors’ counselling records, unless a victim survivor consents to their release. Victim survivors need full confidence that they can safely pursue justice and counselling.
