Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Criminalising image based abuse and combating the rise of this new form of violence is a very important and overdue change. Labor welcomes the government's backflip and will support the amendment to the Enhancing Online Safety (Non-consensual Sharing of Intimate Images) Bill 2018 to introduce aggravated offences for the offensive use of a carriage service where conduct involves private sexual material, because it reflects Labor's clear and longstanding position. It's almost three years now since my colleagues the members for Griffith and Gellibrand introduced a bill into the parliament to criminalise the sharing, without consent, of private sexual material and images. Labor took a policy to the last election, over two years ago, that, within the first hundred days of government, we'd make image based abuse a crime. We said that it was urgent to make this change at that time and that there was no time to waste; however, the government, sadly, killed off Labor's bill. It was removed from the Notice Paper in May last year after the government refused for eight consecutive sitting weeks to call it on for debate.

Labor has continually called on the government to criminalise image based abuse, and the government has continued to make excuses that defy sense and fly in the face of the evidence. In April 2016 the COAG Advisory Panel on Reducing Violence against Women and their Children released a report including this recommendation:

To clarify the serious and criminal nature of the distribution of intimate material without consent, legislation should be developed that includes strong penalties for adults who do so.

Both the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and the Australian Federal Police have supported the introduction of a criminal offence. The Director of Public Prosecutions said a Commonwealth offence targeting so-called revenge porn would 'fill a gap within the existing law'. The Australian Federal Police said 'Uniformity in legislation would be most helpful for the police so that they can investigate and charge perpetrators.' Family violence advocates, sexual assault services and law enforcement services have overwhelmingly called for the introduction of a specific criminal offence.

Four out of five Australians agree that it should be a crime to share sexual or nude images without permission. The only people who didn't think image based abuse should be a crime were the government. The former Minister for Women, Senator Michaelia Cash, insisted, 'People don't want to go down the criminal path.' Further, she said, 'The civil penalty regime is more attractive.' The government has repeatedly justified its failure to introduce a specific Commonwealth offence for image based abuse on the basis that there is an existing offence under section 474.17 of the Criminal Code for misuse of telecommunications services to menace, harass or cause offence. They have insisted again and again that a criminal offence is not necessary. I welcome the government finally changing its position with this amendment.

Making image based abuse a specific Commonwealth crime will make a huge difference. It's important because we will no longer need to rely on a patchwork of different laws across the country. It's important because it will make it easier for victims to go to the police and to have their complaint taken seriously. It's also important to draw a line in the sand and acknowledge that this is criminal behaviour. It's essential that the Australian parliament send a clear message to the community that the non-consensual sharing of intimate images is not acceptable. Sharing intimate images of someone without their consent is a horrific violation of that person's right to privacy. It's an action absolutely designed to humiliate and attack. It's a form of sexual violence, and it's a form of abuse. It's a way that people are exercising power and control over their partners and former partners. So-called revenge porn websites or messaging groups circulating intimate images of young women against their consent are an abhorrent sign that attitudes towards women in some parts of our community are still hopelessly outdated and even malign.

The impact on the victim can be terrible. This violation and invasion of privacy can affect people's reputation, their family, their employment, their current relationships and, of course, even their personal safety. Queensland woman Robyn Night found out from a friend that her head had been photoshopped onto the body of a naked woman surrounded by men. Attached to her photoshopped image were her name, her address and even a picture of her home. She called the police. Because they didn't have these powers, they told her that they could do nothing. The fraud squad never called her back. It took four years—four years of strange men turning up on her doorstep—before she got a positive response from police. Mrs Night told her story through the Senate inquiry investigating Labor's image based abuse legislation. She wanted a criminal offence and jail time for perpetrators. Over 60,000 people signed Mrs Night's petition calling on the government to change the law.

Image based abuse has become scarily widespread. Most of us look back with some wistfulness to our younger days but, when I think about the new challenges that young people today face that we didn't have to face when we were younger, this is near the top of my list of the things that I'm really glad I never had to think about or deal with. In 2017, a study suggested that one in five Australians, both men and women, have experienced image based abuse.

We have to make it perfectly clear that this sort of violation and abuse is criminal behaviour. We need to make it clear to people who are contemplating taking this kind of action that they could be sent to prison for it. Creating a specific criminal offence sends a clear message that this behaviour is not okay, that it's not acceptable and that it has the harshest possible consequences. Labor supported this bill in the Senate because a civil regime was a step in the right direction, but we did so, at the time, noting strong concerns that a civil regime did not go far enough in recognising the seriousness of image based abuse, which should be criminalised. Labor is deeply committed to keeping Australians safe online, and I'm very pleased that we can support the bill, now amended and improved, in the House.

I want to thank all of the stakeholders in the community—all of the groups who fight every day against violence against women and who have campaigned for this change. I want to particularly acknowledge my Labor colleagues who have fought so long—for years!—for this change, including Terri Butler, the member for Griffith; Tim Watts, the member for Gellibrand; Clare O'Neil, the member for Hotham; and Mark Dreyfus, the member for Isaacs. Each one of them has made a strong contribution to seeing this legislation now.

The Turnbull government wasted more than three years insisting that Australians didn't need this protection, that Australia didn't need a specific criminal offence for image based abuse. So I'm very pleased that they've finally accepted the evidence, listened to Australians' views and followed Labor's lead. I commend the bill to the House.

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