Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Of course the Passports Legislation Amendment (Overseas Travel by Child Sex Offenders) Bill 2017 is something that I am going to support and support very strongly. I commend the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop, and the Minister for Justice, Michael Keenan, for addressing this issue, because clearly what we have been doing in the past has not been working. It saddens me to read that in 2016 more than 770 registered child sex offenders travelled overseas from Australia, often without complying with their obligation to notify police of their travel to countries where the law enforcement framework is weaker than in Australia and their activities are not monitored.

One of the things that we take very seriously in Australia is the protection of Australian children. That is a view that is held is by both sides of this parliament and by Australian citizens. The innocence of youth must always be protected. It saddens me when we hear instances of that not happening in Australia, but we do have a very strong law enforcement regime to capture and prosecute people and ultimately to protect young Australians from the breakdown of innocence. But there are some people who seek to set step outside of Australia to access what they perceive as a more vulnerable target, and that is children in other parts of the world. It is imperative that we as a government hold the values that we hold for Australian children for other children in other parts of the world and say that we will not allow children in other parts of the world to be preyed on by people who seek to take away their innocence and exploit them for their own sexual gratification.

This is the chamber that tackles some of these big issues. This is the chamber that sends a signal to those sex offenders that not only will they not be allowed to abuse Australian children but they will not be given an opportunity to leave the country and partake in abuse of children in other parts of the world. The details of this bill are very sound. At any one time, there are up to 20,000 registered child sex offenders in Australia. The government is introducing legislation to prevent child sex offenders with reporting obligations from travelling overseas. There will be a new system in place, and I will run through some of the key points of that. Currently there is no legal authority to cancel or refuse to issue a passport solely on the basis that a person has been convicted of a child sexual offence. We intend to rectify that now.

Step 1 is that the state and territory registers record the details of child sex offenders with reporting responsibilities. When new offenders are convicted and entered into one of these registers, the state or territory will make a passport denial request to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. If the offender has a passport, the Minister for Foreign Affairs will cancel any Australian passport that the person holds. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will notify the offender. If the offender has no passport, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade will put an alert in its system which will flag if the offender applies for a passport, and the passport will be refused.

These measures will help to implement the obligation to protect the rights of vulnerable children. That is in line with our international obligations. It is really pleasing that I can speak on this legislation. In an ideal world, you would never have to think about something like this, but sadly this is not an ideal world; this is the real world. In the real world, governments—and I am pleased to see bipartisan support on this—need to take a strong stance to protect the innocence of youth, the innocence of children, both in Australia and overseas. I am happy to speak on this bill and to commend this bill.

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