House debates

Thursday, 28 October 2021

Statements by Members

Child Abuse

1:30 pm

Photo of Vince ConnellyVince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

As a father, my very first priority is to the safety of my children. Indeed, the Morrison government is committed to the safety of all Australian children. This week, we delivered the first ever long-term national plan to protect children from the scourge of sexual abuse. I'm sure that we can all agree that all of us were shocked and appalled, and rightly so, at the findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. We made a promise to do everything we could within our power to end these crimes. Under this 10-year National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse, we're targeting abuse in all settings, including in the family and in the emerging online world. We're committing an initial $307 million, which includes more than $22 million to deliver a national awareness-raising campaign on child sexual abuse and $18.6 million to implement a national victim-identification framework for online child sexual abuse. The first phase will be driven by two four-year action plans delivering real protections for Australian children and better support for victims and survivors. With the number of these abhorrent crimes increasing, sadly, we must deliver real measures that will lead to those real outcomes as we better safeguard the innocence and safety of all our children.