Closer to home, NSW Bureau of Crime Statistic and Research figures have revealed a 71.2 per cent year-on-year increase in reported sexual assault incidents in the 24 months to December.

Julie Mecham from the Wagga Women's Health Centre said there remained harmful misunderstandings about consent, both in the Wagga community as well as in the highest echelons of the Australian government.

"How do women in our community feel safe when that sort of thing is going on at the highest levels, where decisions are being made about women's equality across all sectors of society?" Ms Mecham said.

"I struggle to find the right words of how disgusted I am."

Walsh & Blair Lawyers associate Morgan Jones has dealt with many rape and sexual offence cases in Wagga, and he said the laws surrounding consent had changed drastically since reforms came in 2008.

In his personal opinion, Mr Jones said the new laws strike a good balance, because the previous laws made it very difficult to convict a perpetrator.

"In the past if an accused person had an honest belief, although mistaken, that the person was consenting, that person had a complete defence," he said.

"It didn't matter how unreasonable that belief was, so long as it was honestly held the person was not guilty of the offence."

Sexual consent must be explicit, which means it cannot be assumed or believed to be a given.

Consent must be given freely and without coercion, which means that people must not feel pressured or obliged into agreeing to something reluctantly.

The person has to be in possession of their full faculties, which means they cannot be drunk, addled by drugs, or similarly incapacitated. This was not always the case, only becoming law in Australia in 2008.

Consent is specific. Just because a person consents to one form of sexual activity, it doesn't mean they've agreed to all forms of sexual activity.

Consent is not one-off. It can be withdrawn at any time, even if two people have had sex in the past.

Revealing clothing is not an invitation and does not equal consent, Ms Mecham said, contrary to what many people continue to say by way of justification.

"A victim is not to blame for a perpetrator's abuse," Ms Mecham said.

"We need to be very, very clear; it doesn't matter what you wear, it doesn't matter if you're drinking, it doesn't matter if you're alone, it doesn't matter if you're out after midnight."

Consent must be given for pregnancy, which Ms Mecham said was a rarely-discussed but depressingly common issue that she sees with her clients.

She sees it come in many forms, including men agreeing to use contraception and then reneging on their promise, pressuring women not to undergo abortion, sabotaging condoms, or other forms of deception to make women pregnant.

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The topic is so seldom discussed that Ms Mecham said some women are not even aware they have been made victims of abuse when it happens.

"Perpetrators seem to do this quite early in relationships because it ties a person to that perpetrator indefinitely," she said.

"It's just starting to be spoken about and recognised as a form of abusive behaviour."

Some, like Mr Jones, believe the current laws strike the right balance between the accuser and the accused.

Others, like Riverina Greens member Jenny McKinnon, believe the laws do not go far enough. She is currently advocating for the Enthusiastic Consent Bill, which was recently put before the NSW Parliament by the Greens.

Ms McKinnon said she believed the time was right to revisit these laws. She said the recent scandals in the Parliament were a sign that more women were willing to stand up for themselves.

"I think it's a really good thing. It feels like we're moving forward and addressing some of the institutional misogyny and discrimination against women," she said.

"What we're looking for is unequivocal, enthusiastic consent that a person wants to go ahead with a sexual act, and if we don't have that it just shouldn't go ahead."

Other proposed solutions include a consent app, as proposed by NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller.

However, lawyer Fahim Khan, who has worked with Wagga Aboriginal legal services, says such an idea has legal problems.

"One of the basis for that [app] is it becomes easier for someone to say there was in fact consent. However, that's not a conclusive sign because consent can be revoked at any point," Mr Khan said. "The major difficulty in preparing to defend such allegations is what can be gathered to corroborate the defendant's version of events to establish there was in fact consent."

Mr Khan said consent laws have changed significantly over the years, with the burden of proof shifting gradually from the victim to the defendant.