Brendan O'Connor (Gorton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

in reply—I thank all members for their respective contributions to the debate on the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Sexual Offences Against Children) Bill 2010. I would like to particularly thank the member for Stirling for his indication that the opposition supports these reforms. I would also like to thank the members for Werriwa and Calwell and the opposition members for their comments in support of this bill. The government agrees with all members that this is an important set of reforms. They will ensure that children in Australia and internationally are better protected from these heinous crimes. I particularly note strong endorsement by the member for Werriwa and the member for Farrer of the new aggravated offences in the bill, including those that apply to persons in positions of trust.

The member for Stirling referred to the bill introduced in 2008 by Senator Bernardi—the private member’s bill. I also indicate, to place this in some historical context, that in 2007 Senator Ludwig introduced the Criminal Code Amendment (Anti-Child Abuse and Pornography Materials) Bill 2007. This pushed the then Howard government, after a few years of inaction, into introducing, in its dying days, the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Child Sex Tourism Offences and Related Measures) Bill. However, the Howard government was too slow to act and the bill was in the parliament when the parliament was prorogued. That bill did not address the full range of issues that have been experienced by law enforcement in dealing with these offences. Therefore, the government has examined best-practice approaches and operational experience, both domestically and internationally.

In developing the bill before us, the government has also taken into account other factors, including the 2008 New South Wales Sentencing Council review of child sex offences, subsequent New South Wales reforms, experience from international investigations into global child pornography rings and developments in technology and its consequences for children. This has resulted in a more comprehensive and progressive set of reforms, including further expansion of the child sex tourism offence regime to ensure consistency with child sex offences applying domestically and new offences targeting sophisticated online child pornography networks and sexual activity committed online.

I welcome the comments made by the members for Stirling, Werriwa, Forrest, Riverina, Pearce, Cowan and Bowman on the AFP’s efforts to combat sexual offences against children. The government has dedicated $125.8 million over four years to improving cybersafety. The cybersafety plan consists of a comprehensive range of measures encompassing education, international cooperation, research, law enforcement and filtering. This includes increased law enforcement capacity through the expansion of the AFP’s High Tech Crime Operations team by a further 91 officers. This will ensure that law enforcement is fully equipped to carry out its work in addressing online child sexual exploitation. The Australian Federal Police, through its High Tech Crime Operations team, actively investigates child sex tourism and online child sexual exploitation. The AFP has forged strong relationships with international law enforcement partners, allowing for considerable collaboration in combating transnational exploitation.

The government also believes prevention and awareness-raising strategies are vital. One important initiative is the ThinkUKnow program, which I recently launched in Brisbane, with the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police and the member for Brisbane, at the Ithaca Creek State School. The program is a collaborative effort between the AFP and Microsoft, providing education for families on how to create a safe online experience for the nation’s youth. These initiatives complement legislative measures, ensuring a multifaceted approach to combating child sexual exploitation.

The member for Stirling and the member for Indi raised the need for offences to carry penalties reflecting the seriousness of sexual offending against children. During the development of this bill, the government undertook an extensive review of state, territory and international child sex offences and penalties. Penalties in the bill are consistent, as far as practicable, with comparable state and territory offences. It is also important that penalties are internally consistent with the offences criminalising other types of behaviour under Commonwealth laws. The bill raises a number of existing penalties and introduces new, high penalties for offences involving aggravated circumstances. In particular, under the bill those participating in organised online child pornography networks will be subject to a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment. These penalties indicate the high level of seriousness of such offending and will ensure that sentences are set accordingly.

I note also the comments of the member for Cowan in relation to so-called ‘sexting’. There are already Commonwealth offences which criminalise the transmission of child pornography material over the internet or by mobile phone. The bill will increase the maximum penalties for the transmission of child pornography material from 10 to 15 years imprisonment. The changes to the maximum penalties are not targeted at sexting but are intended to ensure laws address the contemporary nature of online adult offending. Excluding the sending of child pornography or child abuse material by young people from the proposed offences would be inappropriate, as it might reduce protections for young people. For example, instances of young people sending sexually explicit images of themselves or other young people may in some cases be malicious or exploitative. Although the child pornography offences could potentially apply to young people, there is scope for law enforcement and prosecution agencies to take the circumstances of a particular case into account before proceeding to investigate or proceeding to prosecute.

Child sexual exploitation is a devastating and widespread form of criminal activity. Australia has always played a strong role in addressing the sexual exploitation of children, both domestically and through supporting international efforts to promote the rights of children. Australia already has in place an extensive framework to prevent, investigate and prosecute all forms of child sexual exploitation, including offences which occur within Australia and those committed by Australians overseas. However, it is important to ensure that Australia’s child sex related offence framework remains comprehensive and able to address new patterns of offending. This bill will build upon and improve the existing framework in a number of ways. It will strengthen existing child sex tourism laws and introduce new offences for dealing in child pornography and child abuse material overseas. This will ensure that the full range of behaviour that is criminalised domestically by state and territory laws is also criminalised when committed by Australians overseas.

The bill will also strengthen carriage service offences by increasing maximum penalties for existing online child pornography offences and introducing new offences for indecent communications or sexual activity with a child online. These measures will ensure that the carriage service regime responds effectively to contemporary offending. The bill will also introduce a number of new measures. These include a new suite of postal offences directed at the use of the post for child sex related activity such as the distribution of child pornography. These offences will mirror online offences and ensure that offenders are subject to consistent penalties notwithstanding the medium they use to engage in the offending.

The bill will provide a comprehensive scheme for the forfeiture of child pornography or child abuse material, or articles containing such material, derived from or used in the commission of a Commonwealth child sex offence.

Finally, the bill will introduce aggravated offences designed to target offenders who engage in particularly serious offending, including overseas child sex offences, where the offender is in a position of trust or the child victim has a mental impairment; and carriage service offences involving participation in online child pornography networks. These offences will carry high maximum penalties of up to 25 years imprisonment, sending a strong message to potential offenders that such behaviour will not be tolerated.

The government is committed to taking all necessary action to protect children from sexual exploitation. The measures in this bill complement other government initiatives in this area, including the government’s cybersafety plan, which I referred to earlier. This bill represents another significant step as part of the effort to prevent, investigate and prosecute child sex related offences. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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