Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Johnston. Can the minister advise the Senate what new initiatives have been developed by the government to protect Australian families from online dangers in the very complex internet environment? Can the minister advise how the government is supporting our law enforcement agencies to combat online sexual predators?

David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, may I pause to congratulate you on your elevation to President of the Senate. I thank the senator for her question and congratulate her on her recent preselection in New South Wales. I acknowledge her longstanding interest in looking after young people, particularly in New South Wales. I can say with great confidence that the Howard government has shown during its time in office a total commitment to eradicating the abhorrent practices associated with sexual exploitation of children, particularly on the internet.

As I said last month in this chamber, as part of this unequivocal commitment, the Australian Federal Police have been a very active partner in the Virtual Global Taskforce, an alliance between local and international law enforcement agencies which aims to make the internet a safer place for children. The Australian Federal Police have collaborated with their international partners in this alliance to create a strong deterrent to online predators who engage in this type of child abuse. The Australian Federal Police have been an active partner in Operation Lobate since early December 2006. As senators are aware, this has been a very successful operation in Australia with the execution of five search warrants, the arrest of four people, one conviction and a further two people currently before the courts. Worldwide there have been 63 arrests across 35 countries, resulting in the rescue of 22 child victims of abuse—a very real priority for all parties working on this very difficult and often traumatic area of law enforcement.

Children should always be able to use the internet safely without the fear of being approached or groomed by a sexual predator. This is the responsibility of the whole community—not just parents but also law enforcement agencies, industry, schools and children themselves. As part of this commitment, the Commonwealth has already enacted legislation relating to child pornography and child abuse, which came into effect on 1 March 2005. To support the implementation of this vital legislation in the fight against online predators, the Australian Federal Police established the Online Child Sex Exploitation Team. This team currently has 35 specialist staff dedicated to the evaluation and investigation of online sex exploitation matters.

A further 100 Australian Federal Police investigators throughout Australia have also been trained to increase the capacity of the Australian Federal Police to fight this crime. Since its inception in 2005, the Online Child Sex Exploitation Team has been responsible for laying charges against 55 people for a total of 160 offences.

To further support the work of the Online Child Sex Exploitation Team, the government only last week announced a NetAlert Protecting Australian Families Online initiative of $189 million which will be provided to the Australian Federal Police for OCSET to continue detecting, investigating and charging online child sex predators. The provision of $43.5 million over four years will further assist OCSET and related high-tech crime units in the detection and investigation of online child sex exploitation, including grooming of children by online sex predators. The additional funding will effectively double the size of OCSET with an additional 36 new staff in 2007-08 rising to 90 by 2009-10.

The internet provides a wonderful window to learning particularly for children. The government acknowledge that this is a vital tool to enhance our childrens’ learning but it is also a target for wicked child sex predators. I say to the Senate that this government are determined to stand between predators and children. We are utterly committed to protecting children online and will do whatever it takes to see them securely enjoying the benefits of this wonderful medium.