Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the House for the opportunity to speak on this incredibly important bill, the Combatting Child Sexual Exploitation Legislation Amendment Bill 2019. It has been a number of years since the Commonwealth parliament came to a view that it was important for us to extend our purview over people who were plying their evil trade of abusing minors to countries outside Australia. It was an important step, because they were using the reach of this parliament and parliaments in other parts of Australia to try and get outside the net of the will of the people. As a father of a daughter, it is quite extraordinary that anyone would behave in such a manner and form. These reforms are critical to sending a clear message to people who would use this type of activity to create a situation where they feel they could get away with it.

We have seen in other jurisdictions that minimum mandatory sentencing sends a clear signal to perpetrators of all types of crimes that it is unacceptable and they will not be able to get through the court system or to somehow convince people that they should not be punished in a relevant and systemic fashion. When such measures have been introduced, what we have found is that those crimes have reduced quite massively and quite substantially. This bill makes it quite clear that we are going to be in a position where such people will not be able to go overseas and will not be able to subvert the will of this parliament and the people of Australia. This is important for many reasons. Yesterday, we had World Suicide Prevention Day. It is amazing, the number of people who commit suicide because of events that occurred earlier in their lives. In some cases, they have denied that those events ever occurred, but later in life they find themselves in the situation where they simply cannot deal with those events.

Preventing this sort of crime against children is, I think, one of the most important things that any parliament can do. I say, as the parent of a daughter, it is difficult to imagine a better way to harm any parent than to abuse their child—especially in situations where there are people in places of trust. That is, they've been given an opportunity to look after children and that instead of using that position as they should, undertaking care and diligence to ensure that the child is protected, they betray the trust that has been placed in them.

We cannot, in any circumstances, underestimate the enormity of the betrayal. This parliament is right to send a most extraordinary signal—in fact, there is probably no signal that we could send that is extraordinary enough—to say to people in that position that if they abuse the child who they are meant to be protecting, then the weight of the law will come down upon them without mercy because they have shown the most vulnerable in our community no mercy. We don't care where that happens. They can try to ply their evil trade in other parts of the world, but the long arm of the Australian law will find them, will prosecute them and will punish them for this crime that they have committed. There is nothing more serious than injuring a person for life in a manner and form that does not allow them to live their lives to their greatest possibilities.

From time to time I reflect on the number of people who have committed suicide later in life, who were unable to continue a full life because of the scars—the mental distress—that they had suffered due to the abuse that they had to endure as children. How many great people have our communities lost because we were unable in that time and place to look after them in a manner and form that we should have? That is why I believe that this particular piece of legislation will be passed by this parliament unanimously.

The member for Mayo also spoke of the damaging effects of normalising aberrant behaviour, as we see with child sex dolls. It is important that this parliament, as the Attorney-General has done, recognises the harm that these dolls can do and recognises that it is almost like a ramp-up to committing a crime. It's important that we stop these things now, before they come and do harm and damage to others. This is not a trivial matter; this is in fact quite the opposite. It is a very serious matter, and it is right that this parliament recognises that. We need to take the opportunity at this point in time to say very clearly to people who think that it's okay that it's not okay; that this House, the people's House, recognises that the behaviour of people who think that it's okay is not okay, and that if they try to do that the law of this land will very clearly be brought down upon their heads.

There are, obviously, other matters that we should look at very seriously as well. This bill, like all bills of this nature, must take account of circumstances as they evolve. It is important that we continue to recognise that while we may believe there is no other way for people who wish to perpetrate this crime to do so, inevitably there will be people who try to find ways around this law. In those circumstances, it is important that this parliament be very strong in the manner and form that it responds to those opportunities.

Debate interrupted.

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