Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I start, I want to acknowledge the young people in the gallery of the chamber this morning and implore you to listen to what I have to say very, very carefully, because this will impact on not just you but also older people. There are some very salient lessons in what I'm about to say in relation to a bill which deals with the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. This is a continuation of a speech I was making yesterday on the Enhancing Online Safety (Non-consensual Sharing of Intimate Images) Bill 2018, so it may not make sense because you are coming into it two-thirds of the way in.

Australians want immediate action on this bill. Those impacted do not want to wait for a lengthy criminal trial process. In general, their first priority is not a criminal conviction but getting wrongfully-shared images removed from public display as quickly as possible. And, if possible, they want to prevent the images from being posted in the first place—but, if you don't want intimate images of you posted, don't take intimate images of yourself or allow intimate images to be taken of you. As the minister has outlined in detail, this bill will achieve that with significantly expanded civil powers for the eSafety Commissioner, which will send a clear message that this behaviour—that is, the non-consensual sharing of intimate images—will result in swift and substantial penalties.

At every stage, without interfering with or disrupting existing state and Commonwealth criminal powers, this legislation will act to prevent offences and help to get content removed immediately. First, it will provide a significant deterrent for anyone considering sharing such an image, with penalties of up to $105,000 for an individual perpetrator and $525,000 for corporations. This is three times greater than the existing financial penalty for similar offences under the Criminal Code. Further, the government's amendments this morning will nearly double the maximum prison sentences for anyone who uses private sexual material in the course of menacing or harassing a victim online.

Second, where an individual has threatened to share an image of this kind, the bill allows a complaint to be made directly to the eSafety Commissioner, who can take action within hours. The commissioner would be able to issue an immediate remedial direction to the potential perpetrator, requiring them not to share the image as threatened. An infringement notice would be available as an option to be issued for even making the threat, while the bill also allows the commissioner to seek a court injunction to prevent the sharing of the images once and for all. Where an image has already been shared, the bill allows complaints to be made directly to the eSafety Commissioner and for the commissioner to issue removal notices not only to perpetrators but, importantly, to the social media services, websites and content hosts who facilitate the sharing. These notices would require the images to be taken down within 48 hours.

Finally, in the case of ongoing offences where perpetrators have multiple complaints, where they've ignored notices to remove the content or where the perpetrator has repeatedly offended, the bill allows the commissioner to seek a civil penalty order in the Federal Court for the full six-figure sums I previously stated. This is what Australians want. We know because, across months of consultation on this issue, they told us in no uncertain terms. Complainants want as many of these offences as possible to be prevented and, where they have occurred, they want the content taken down within hours. With a series of pragmatic civil powers informed by stakeholders' feedback and granted to the agency, which is already achieving great things in this field, that is what this bill delivers.

Yesterday, when I delivered the bulk of my speech, there was a lady in the gallery who was sitting and watching proceedings. She was a victim of these heinous offences. Where someone has been taken advantage of as an adult, in instances where they haven't taken a photo of themselves or allowed a photo to be taken of themselves—where the person is absolutely innocent or wasn't even reckless in their behaviour but someone took advantage of their particular circumstance—this is what this bill will do: this bill will counter that sort of conduct, and it will hopefully change the culture of some in our community by showing that this behaviour is absolutely unacceptable. We collectively—this parliament and the courts—will throw the book at these people and impose very significant penalties on them. This bill will ensure that that sort of content can be taken down very, very quickly, as is only appropriate. I commend the bill to the House.

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