Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Criminal Code Amendment (Protecting Minors Online) Bill 2017. This is obviously a very important bill. It is interesting when paedophiles go to the extreme effort of disguising themselves to basically coax younger people. In this case it comes from the sad and tragic death of Carly Ryan, a 15-year-old who was murdered by a 50-year-old man. I thank her mother, Sonya, for establishing the Carly Ryan Foundation and for all the great work she has done.

I go back to my days in the police force. I remember, in one of my early days as a recruit, the instructor showed us a photofit. On the photofit it had various faces, and we were asked to identify who was the rapist, who was the paedophile and who was the murderer. Everyone pretty much selected their three. In actual fact it was revealed that all were in some way a rapist, murderer or paedophile. I heard members refer to paedophiles as monsters, and they are. But when you see them they come across as everyday people who have this sick obsession. That is the danger for parents and young people. You will find that a paedophile will in many cases become the parent's best friend, because he knows that if you get the parents on side you can get access to the child.

So many young people use the internet, and they obviously want to communicate and meet new people. The family home is a very safe place indeed, unless your son or daughter is on the internet talking to someone or communicating with a person you believe is another child. The parent could walk past their bedroom and see the photo of a young male or a young girl and think that they are just communicating with someone from school or sport. But I do say to parents, always ask your child how they know that person. Is it a friend from school? If it is not someone they have ever identified before, have a danger flag go up. Yes, I am overprotective, but as a former police officer my first aim is to be protective.

Paedophiles realise that if they go in as their own identity, meaning a 50-year-old male talking or communicating with a 13-year-old or 15-year-old, obviously the communication will pretty much stop there. If they put themselves up as someone who a young person will relate to—we hear that the most creative fake internet or Facebook posts are actually of Justin Bieber. Why? Because the person who is creating that pseudonym would know that that is a way they can easily make contact with a young person.

These laws are very, very important. I congratulate the Minister for Justice for the work he has done. It creates new offences which will apply to a broader range of circumstances than the Commonwealth laws currently have. It will target existing grooming and procuring laws and acts leading up to sexual activity with a child and will require the participator to be identified. With the new laws, as the person is creating their new character, the police do not have to wait until an offence has been committed. It is a bit different in law enforcement when you come to, for example, drug trafficking. You can basically wait until the buy-bust goes down and you can arrest all those involved. Police obviously cannot and do not want to do that when it comes to sexual offences or paedophiles. Currently they pretty much have to wait until the communication has started. This is stopped and it allows the police to intervene at a much earlier stage—as soon as they are able to identify that a person is basically creating a fake identity to target or procure a young person and groom them. Police can actually act. To me that is very worthwhile.

The penalty is significant: 10 years jail. To me, that is a good penalty. Obviously I would like to see mandatory life imprisonment, but that would probably extend this too far. In the last financial year, 33 defendants were charged with offences against children under section 474.26 of the Criminal Code, which criminalises using a carriage service to procure a minor. Obviously, this is occurring all the time. Twenty-three defendants were convicted and 17 were sentenced to immediate imprisonment. I congratulate the law enforcement officers who identify and investigate paedophile activity. When I was in the police force, it was an area I did not want to go into. In many cases they have to watch very sickening offences, and identifying victims is also exceptionally troubling for them. This all comes back to the sad and tragic death of 15-year-old Carly Ryan, as I mentioned before. We thank her mother, Sonya, so much for what she has done—for going out and pushing rather than sitting back and saying, 'Hey, it's too difficult.' She has gone on the front foot and, on behalf of all members of parliament and all the Australian community, I congratulate Sonya for the incredible work she has done.

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