Senate debates
Tuesday, 2 April 2019
Motions
Child Sexual Abuse
5:09 pm
Derryn Hinch (Victoria, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I move:
That the Senate—
(a) notes that:
(i) on 9 January 2019, the Federal Government announced a plan to create a public register of child sex offenders,
(ii) the community wants, and rightly deserves, strengthened measures aimed at better protecting children from known child sex offenders, including access to a national child sex offender register, and
(iii) such a register would rely on states and territories feeding information into the national database, meaning the Commonwealth would need them to sign on to the scheme; and
(b) calls on:
(i) all state and territory governments to negotiate in good faith in the development of this public register, and
(ii) when legislated, federally and by states and territories, this policy should be known as 'Daniel's Law', in memory of Daniel Morcombe.
Anthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
I seek leave to make a short statement.
Scott RyanAnthony Chisholm (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source
Labor acknowledge the sentiments driving this motion, including the tragic loss of Daniel Morcombe and the need for all children to be protected from child sex offenders. It was to further this objective that Labor in 2013 established the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which made 409 recommendations for how to better protect our children. The royal commission did not recommend creating a publicly accessible national child sex offenders register as the Morrison government is calling for. Labor will be guided by the considered and detailed recommendations of the royal commission. We also note that several states have indicated that they have no interest in pursuing the proposal put forward by this divided and desperate government and referred to in this motion.
Question agreed to.