Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Morrison government and the Australian community know that every child needs to be protected from sexual predators. Every child needs to witness adequate judicial sentencing of sexual predators. Every predator must be adequately sentenced and supervised to prevent reoffending. The Crimes Legislation Amendment (Sexual Crimes Against Children and Community Protection Measures) Bill 2019 will improve existing legislation to achieve these expectations. There should be no question as to whether this bill should pass in the form that it is in now, as it serves to correct the weaknesses that have been identified which favour depraved sex offenders and predators, who should receive the adequate sentencing that the community rightly expects.

The bill follows the government's previous reforms, which included the power to stop paedophiles from travelling overseas to reoffend and the introduction of Carly's Law. Following these increased powers of investigation and the tighter legislation, the AFP have detected an increase in child exploitation offences over the past year. The government will not sit idly on its hands when it can respond with clear, strong laws against these predators. We won't waste time kicking this issue into the long grass. There is a serious problem, and it needs to be dealt with now. I'm confident that not one member in this chamber would vote to make our child sex crimes any less effective or sentencing any more lenient. And nor should they, for they represent their communities, and their communities want more effective protection for their children and harsher penalties for those convicted. The Morrison government is acting on this expectation, and the bill includes mandatory sentencing for recidivist offenders, increased maximum penalties and a presumption in favour of actual imprisonment.

The previous speaker spoke of Labor's longstanding opposition to mandatory sentencing. Well, I have long been in support of mandatory sentencing. This doesn't come from shining a seat in a university as an academic or from sitting in Labor Party conferences, listening to other bleeding hearts about how mandatory sentencing doesn't work; it comes from having watched the most vile filth in our community walk free when they shouldn't have—walk free when a gutless member of the judiciary, who has lost touch with looking after victims and with community expectations, has let a sex offender or criminal walk back into the community.

I understand that mandatory sentencing is not for every offence. I understand that you need to take into account matters like hardship or education or the circumstances that someone finds themselves in, such as whether they have children to look after, as to whether you are going to give a custodial sentence. But you think about those things that I've just said and put them into the context of somebody who has decided to sexually offend against and sexually abuse a child.

Does hardship, not having enough money or no job, cause you to sexually abuse a child? No, it doesn't. Does not having education cause you to sexually abuse a child? No, it doesn't. Does having kids at home mean, because you've sexually abused a child, you should be let go back home to look after those children? Well, I think the answer to that is obvious; no, it shouldn't. Sex offenders are people who have a perverted, sick desire to satisfy themselves by sexually abusing a child. Anybody that is associated with this kind of thing should not be walking amongst us in our community. They should be incarcerated. And it is a disgrace that Labor opposes mandatory sentencing for child sex predators.

No longer will we tolerate a third of Commonwealth child sex offenders being convicted without going to jail. No longer will we tolerate child sex predators being released into the community without undergoing any rehabilitation programs. No longer will we tolerate paedophiles being released without adequate supervision. This bill is urgently needed to tackle the increased capability of child sex predators to commit offences in the ever-developing digital space. Unfortunately, in this online world, the monstrous act of child sexual abuse is often accompanied by wicked, cruel violence, and this bill augments sentencing with appropriate aggravating factors that allow tougher penalties for these sorriest of crimes.

The government is conscious that children as victims and, therefore, witnesses of these nightmare crimes need greater protection in court. No longer will they have to enter the adult-filled courtroom and look into the face of their attacker, as we will allow prerecorded evidence. No longer will they be unnecessarily re-traumatised, as we will stop them being unnecessarily cross-examined at committal or other preliminary hearings.

The Australian public's outcry of anguish when it learns that a repeat offending paedophile, or one charged with serious acts of paedophilia, is released from custody on bail must end. With the introduction of this bill, the government will make it difficult for these most dangerous of predators to obtain such releases. This bill will help the victims over the predators and will place the safety of children as the prime consideration. By passing this bill, we will ensure that never again will a convicted paedophile walk free in the community without mandated supervision. The government want this bill to pass and the Australian people want this bill to pass with mandatory minimum sentencing. The Australian government want us to be a tougher on paedophiles. This bill is our response to that call.

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