Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to commend the opening late last week of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, ACCCE. Located in my home city of Brisbane, this facility is now Australia's frontline in the fight against child sexual exploitation. I want to commend Minister Dutton in this place on creating the facility. It is a tremendous legacy in the fight to protect our kids, and they have no greater advocate in this place than Minister Dutton.

The new purpose-built facility brings together resources from government agencies, law enforcement and other partners, like the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, into a centralised hub. I've visited the facility and I've spoken personally to the dedicated AFP and Queensland police officers undertaking this work. They are viewing the most horrendous material imaginable in order to track offenders and rescue kids. They are undercover in the darkest recesses of the internet, tracking and exposing predators. As a nation, as a parliament and as parents we owe these officers endless gratitude for the work that they do and the personal toll that they have to bear in order to do it.

In the last 12 months, the ACCCE received more than 21,000 incoming reports of child exploitation. The facility delivers an unprecedented capability to investigate and combat these crimes, and its latest operation saw 87 offenders arrested, over 1,200 offenders charged and 24 children saved. Thank you so much to these officers for leading the fight on behalf of Australian parents.

See this speech in context