Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I second the Criminal Code Amendment (Using Technology to Generate Child Abuse Material) Bill 2025. This is a really important specific amendment to the Criminal Code introduced by the member for Curtin. I really commend her for addressing this because, all too often, big reform can be difficult in this place. But when there is a very key, important area where you can see that harm is occurring it is incumbent on the government to act quickly and promptly. We here on the crossbench are providing a road map of a very clear hole that can be filled now.

The bill addresses a deeply disturbing and rapidly-evolving threat: the use of AI and other technologies to generate child abuse material. This is a confronting reality, and there should be a multipartisan agreement to do everything possible to stamp out that kind of child abuse material. Artificial intelligence offers significant benefits for productivity and innovation; we don't dispute that. It is set to reshape the economy, transforming how we work, create and interact. But those tools that offer so much promise are now being misused to exploit and harm children.

This bill as introduced provides a new offence to criminalise the downloading, supplying and enabling access to technologies whose sole promise is to create child abuse material. It's a very particular type of AI, designed to create on-demand materials and then delete them to avoid detection. It also targets the collection and distribution of data intended to train such technologies. These provisions acknowledge that AI abuse starts with real children for these tools to be trained on. In that way, a child is always harmed in the process. These provisions are necessary and urgently needed to close a very dangerous gap in our criminal law and ensure that our justice system keeps pace with technological developments.

Regulating AI is challenging. No-one disputes that. Australia has to get the right legislative framework in place to adequately address the complexities of these rapidly-evolving technologies. We know the current national framework for child exploitation, for example, drafted in 2021, is already out of date when it comes to the threats of AI. We know the UK and the EU are already introducing similar provisions to ensure that they protect children from this kind of material. Australia will fall behind unless the government acts. That is the warning of this bill today.

There is a growing recognition around the world of the need for this kind of legislation and these guardrails. We have to act decisively and with urgency to protect children from exploitation in all its forms. So I commend this bill to the House for the government to act urgently to close this loophole.

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