Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, with respect, this doesn't have to be an either-or proposition. This amendment gives you the opportunity to do and-and. We've constantly said this, and this chamber has expressed support for the civil penalty regime, but there's an opportunity here for you to do what needs to be done to give people actual choice to prosecute, to go through a criminal scheme to access justice.

Yesterday I made some points about the reality that we have limited choice that's available to victims of the sharing of images to which they haven't given consent. We acknowledge that not everybody will want to pursue the criminal proceedings and some of them would actually prefer to work with the eSafety Commissioner, and a civil regime is okay in that context, but, at the moment, the choice for people to actually prosecute through criminal courts is simply not available to so many Australians. There needs to be a deterrent. Everybody understands this. At least four out of five Australians are saying there needs to be a deterrent. This is sufficiently unpleasant behaviour—this is sufficiently criminal behaviour—that it warrants the Criminal Code, not just a civil regime. That's the view of Australia right at this point of time. I think, Minister, you are completely out of touch with it when you say we have to choose between one or the other.

With regard to your response to my question regarding overseas jurisdictions, we have had, through the eSafety Commissioner's engagement with major social media players, a very good relationship develop, and we have seen improvements in the speed with which images have been removed, because there's reputational damage to those large entities. But, for those overseas rogue players whose business is in fact providing a platform for the sharing of images to which people have not consented, there needs to be some deterrent here at home to stop people from doing that. Criminalising it will provide that deterrent, Minister.

Could you respond to those points and also help me understand: does the minister acknowledge that a criminal regime would provide the eSafety Commissioner with greater clout and capacity to prosecute rogue operators and potentially give the eSafety Commissioner greater success when it comes to enforcement?