David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in wholehearted support for the Combatting Child Sexual Exploitation Legislation Amendment Bill 2019, and I would like to endorse the comments of previous speakers. Unfortunately, child abuse is a scourge on society. In my adult life I have been involved in this area, particularly in the last seven or eight years, because of my involvement, in the Port Macquarie region, with the wonderful Bravehearts organisation—which is dedicated to educating, empowering and protecting our most vulnerable, our children—and because of my work in the portfolio of children and families. I've been involved with rolling out the Redress Scheme in the children and families portfolio. The overwhelming impression is that this scourge is far more common than most people realise, and these omnibus bill recommendations and changes to the law will strengthen the framework within which the Australian Commonwealth addresses child sexual abuse both here and overseas.

Many of the recommendations in the royal commission have already come into force. The redress scheme is now up and running. But this bill also implements and creates new offences—an offence of either failing to protect a child at risk of a child sexual abuse event and an offence if you fail to report. As the member before me, the member for Mayo, said, the failure to report to the authorities knowledge of a child sexual offence makes you as guilty as the person who's doing it, because you're tolerating it by not reporting it. It also strengthens the legislation and offences about overseas persistent child sexual abuse, because the persistent cases of child sexual abuse, particularly by people in positions of authority, are often the hardest to prove. So we've got changes in there to make it easier for the victim and make the likelihood of a prosecution greater. There are a range of measures to expand what is illegal in child exploitation both here in Australia and overseas. It also, as I said, enhances the protection outcomes and makes prosecutions a lot easier.

It also addresses some glaring gaps, criminalising the control and possession of child pornography material or child abuse material that's come over a carriage service. As you know, Deputy Speaker, online abuse is much more common than we realise. These changes are addressing that by making it a criminal offence to transmit, receive or store such digital evidence of child abuse. The bill also addresses and prevents certain dealings with childlike sex dolls and criminalises the possession of childlike sex dolls. It struck me as another shocking reality that people get these pornographic dolls as a means of normalising and encouraging child sexual abuse.

The other issue that this bill is addressing is forced marriage, which happens both here in Australia and overseas. The bill introduces a new criminal code for Commonwealth officers if they are in a position of power and they fail to report or prevent a child sexual abuse event occurring, particularly if it is part of their actual or effective responsibilities.

The other thing is possession or control of child pornography material. The bill introduces tests that make it a lot easier to prosecute. As I mentioned, in cases of persistent child sexual abuse the authorities have found, particularly with young, vulnerable people who have been abused over and over again, that it all blurs in the mind of a young person. In these provisions we have changed the requirement so that they need only to prove that the abuse happened twice rather than thrice. Before that, it was even harder.

Going to the issue of forced marriages, there are many valiant legal organisations trying to prevent forced marriages both here in Australia and in Asia and other overseas destinations. A lot of people use forced marriages as an excuse for committing child sexual abuse, but these amendments cause it to be an offence to enter into a forced marriage or be party to a forced marriage. A marriage is defined as being forced if it's entered into without full and free consent because of the use of coercion, threat or deception, or if the victim has an incapacity to understand the nature and effect of the marriage ceremony, for reasons such as age. The age under which that knowledge and understanding is presumed is 16. A person under the age of 16 is presumed to be incapable of understanding the nature and effect of the marriage ceremony. As I mentioned, the legislation also expands the rebuttable presumption and expands the definition of forced marriage to explicitly include all marriages involving children under 16.

This change to the law will make it a lot easier for the poor child victim. It reduces the need to call evidence from the vulnerable child victim, and it simplifies the prosecutorial burden. All of this is really important. I have seen what has happened to people who have suffered child abuse. Unfortunately, I've seen so many school friends whose lives have been turned upside down as a result of what happened when they were young and naive. I dealt with cases when I was assistant minister in the Children and Families portfolio and through my involvement with Bravehearts.

The main thing is that this is an all-encompassing attempt to close a lot of loopholes so that Australians who do travel overseas don't abuse children under the cover of forced marriages, with lax law enforcement and child protection structures in place. It means that we can catch Australians who are doing these horrible things overseas. All in all, it is a great outcome that this bill has so much support across the aisles, and I'm sure it will have equal support in the other place. I commend the bill to the House.

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