Last week I had a meeting with the director of the Immigrant Women's Health Service in Western Sydney, Dr Eman Sharobeem. She raised with me the growing problem of forced child marriages, a most abhorrent practice that robs young girls of their childhoods and imperils their health and lives. This is not something that is occurring in the backblocks of some war torn Middle Eastern country but in parts of my own electorate.

Therefore it was highly distressing to read an example of child marriage in our nation being reported in today's media, where a 12-year-old girl was found to be pregnant and to have miscarried after she had been married to a 27-year-old man in a ceremony conducted by an Islamic cleric last year. The accused man's barrister stated to the court that his client had only arrived in Australia just a few months before meeting the girl and 'he did not know he was doing the wrong thing'.

Our nation is a success because of our immigration program, welcoming people from all parts of the globe to become Australians. But, if we are to continue to accept immigrants from countries where it is traditional custom for an older man to marry a child bride, we must spell out in crystal clear language that this is not just another multicultural practice. It is a violation of human rights and in Australia we consider it a heinous criminal act against children.

We also need to strengthen our laws regarding anyone who engages in aiding or abetting child marriage. A mere $500 fine which was imposed by a court upon one person who performed a child marriage is manifestly inadequate in the extreme.