Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her very important question. Every child has the right to be safe from sexual abuse. There wouldn't be a member of this chamber or a decent Australian who is not sickened by reports of horrific crimes against our children. The perpetrators of this abuse are despicable, and they must be stopped. Preventing child sexual abuse and protecting our most vulnerable requires a collective effort, and our government is tackling this issue on a number of fronts.

Last week, the Assistant Treasurer introduced landmark law to help those who've experienced child sexual abuse to access the compensation they deserve, preventing convicted abusers from hiding their assets in superannuation. I thank the victims-survivors who advocated so strongly for these protections. They played a critical role in shaping this legislation.

In my portfolio, we are delivering reforms to working-with-children checks so that our systems are stronger, more reliable and more consistent across the country. If you're banned from holding a working-with-children check in one jurisdiction, you are banned in all. I am pleased to update the House that seven out of eight jurisdictions across Australia have now legislated these reforms, and the final one jurisdiction has introduced legislation that is expected to pass in the coming months.

Thirty years ago, the nature of matters prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions was very different. Today, concerningly, the most prevalent offences are for child sex exploitation, with 1,500 proven offences in 2024-25. Every member of this House would agree that the best outcome is to prevent abuse and stop it before it occurs. 'One Talk At A Time' is Australia's first national awareness-raising campaign aimed at preventing child sexual abuse. It encourages adults with young people in their lives to learn about the issues and have ongoing, proactive, preventative conversations.

Where abuse does occur, we must ensure that offenders are caught and convicted. This means backing our law-enforcement agencies and the CDPP with the tools that they need to do their jobs. That's why the Albanese government has delivered $35 million in increased funding for the CDPP, enabling more successful prosecutions to occur. And we must support victims, which is why we've delivered a $12.2 million grant program to organisations that support children who've suffered sexual abuse and who are themselves displaying harmful sexual behaviours. Whether it's strengthening deterrence and offences, or backing our law enforcement agencies and responding to new online harms, we'll keep working to protect children from this abhorrent behaviour.

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