Glenn Lazarus (Queensland, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

Revenge porn is a topic that is becoming increasingly relevant and problematic in our society.

Already in Queensland, we have seen a rise in revenge porn cases, including some very high-profile cases, including that of Brisbane woman Robyn Night, who suffered online abuse for years.

Robyn bravely decided to speak to the press to bring the issue to the attention of lawmakers to encourage change in the way society views these issues and in the severity of the penalties applied to perpetrators.

I would like Robyn and everyone who has had their lives turned upside down as a result of this issue to know that I am determined to help you and to ensure new laws are implemented to protect people from the scourge of revenge porn and to ensure the law deals with perpetrators in the harshest way possible.

Revenge porn is also tied in heavily with the domestic violence crisis that Australia is facing and it is my belief that we need to do more in this area to prevent harm to women and children.

We all agree that domestic violence has terrible impacts for society and is a very difficult issue to tackle.

I would also like to acknowledge the great work of the New South Wales Police Force in unveiling their new campaign to encourage victims or survivors, as I like to call them, to understand that domestic violence is not their fault, and to seek help.

The committee reports that 'revenge porn' is a term used to describe 'images obtained (consensually or otherwise) in an intimate relationship; photographs or videos of sexual assault/s; images obtained from the use of hidden devices to record another person; stolen images from the Cloud or a person's computer or other device; and pornographic or sexually explicit images that have been photo-shopped, showing the victim's face.'

The committee heard from many witnesses that the term 'revenge porn' is misleading and should be replaced with a phrase such as 'non-consensual sharing of intimate images'. This is to reflect the fact that people create, share and threaten to share these images and videos for different reasons and these can include—seeking revenge, seeking notoriety, or coercion.

I will not go into the detail of some of the cases we heard—but they were very distressing and I was left feeling sickened by some of the issues we dealt with.

One of the issues highlighted during the inquiry is that we as a society need to do more to educate people about the dangers of modern technology and consensually allowing others to take pictures of themselves.

Many witnesses talked about situations where they had allowed pictures to be taken and then found that the images had been shared without their permission or had been doctored onto pornographic material.

In some instances, doctored photos had been posted on to pornographic sites with name and address details in order to humiliate, degrade, embarrass and, of course, control.

Some victims even found their images shared online with encouragements to contact and threaten them.

I strongly support the need for strong action to deal with revenge porn and I am pleased to report the committee recommends that new crimes be legislated specifically addressing the need for further protections.

It also recommends that further criminal penalties apply, that civil actions be created and that it is not just the act of non-consensually sharing an intimate image that we oppose, but also the threat of sharing.

Criminalising these threats allows us to give victims a course of action to prevent blackmail which can be used to keep them in abusive relationships, prevent them from contacting the police, make them feel powerless and isolated, and have negative consequences for their families, relationships and career prospects.

Threatening to share images is also used to silence victims of abuse.

It is also very important to note that many submissions recommended education and awareness programs.

Programs in schools would encourage students to seek help if someone has shared or created images of them.

This is an extremely serious issue as some images will fall under existing child pornography laws and the Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner has the powers to remove images from the internet.

Removal of these images is a powerful remedy and, if done in time, may prevent significant harm.

In summary, I would like to thank all the witnesses who took part in the inquiry.

They demonstrated great courage in re-living their experiences with revenge porn—which was not an easy thing to do. But they did it to provide others with a voice and to ensure change happens in our country.