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In Queensland, the Summary Offences Act 2005 states "A person who is so near a public place that the person may be seen from the public place must not wilfully expose his or her genitals so that the person’s genitals may be seen from the public place, unless the person has a reasonable excuse."

Across the state border in New South Wales, there is no such statute; only a stricter test of obscenity in or near a public place. This doesn't stop NSW cops arresting World Naked Bike Riders every year, but they have to let them go, every year.

So does one commit an offence if one stands in NSW and exposes oneself to a person in a public place across the border in Queensland? This isn't as clear-cut as the stereotypical example of shooting someone across the border, since no offence has been committed by the self-exposer, in the jurisdiction in which s/he is standing. In the shooting case, the offence is murder, not doing or not doing something in a particular place.

Answers: No; if you're in NSW, then NSW law applies and Queensland does not have jurisdiction or Yes; you committed a Queensland offence, even though you were not geographically in Queensland at the time.

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  • If you have both a question and the answer to it, you can pose the question and then use the answer feature to separately present the answer. This would be better than sticking both a question and an answer in the question.
    – Jason Aller
    Commented Nov 7, 2018 at 15:32

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Taking your take on the criminality in each jurisdiction at face value.

You have probably committed a crime under Queensland law and they can ask NSW to extradite you. Such a request will be refused because it’s not an offence in NSW. Just make sure you never go to Queensland.

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  • So what about the defence that I wasn't in Queensland at the time? Surely Queensland law only applies to Queensland? To give a trivial contrived example, if it is illegal to wear green hats in Queensland, then as soon as I'm over the border into NSW, I can put on the hat and no one will care. Likewise, the exposure offence is about doing something in Queensland.
    – Michael restore Monica Cellio
    Commented Nov 7, 2018 at 22:48
  • @Michael why on Earth do you think any jurisdictions law is inherently limited to within its borders?
    – Dale M ♦
    Commented Nov 8, 2018 at 0:06
  • To deal with your contrived law - the Qld parliament is free to make it a crime for a resident of Queensland to wear a green hat anywhere as well as or instead of making green hats illegal to wear by anyone within its boundaries.(Ignoring the fact that the law would be unconstitutional as it treats different classes of Australians as different).
    – Dale M ♦
    Commented Nov 8, 2018 at 0:09

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