Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

There is no more important matter for this parliament or indeed for Australian society to consider at the moment than the protection of children, the most vulnerable in our society. I think many Australians—every Australian—will have been shocked by the news in the last couple of days about a grotesque individual who's alleged to have committed some 1,623 child abuse offences, including 136 counts of rape and 110 counts of sexual intercourse with a child under 10 and 604 counts of indecent treatment of a child. The most important asset of any family is a child or children of that relationship, particularly younger toddlers and infants, those who deserve the protection of not just their families but those who have been charged with the responsibility to take care of them in the absence of their parents.

The reason I think this is a very important matter for the parliament to contemplate today is that the news cycle, as we know, moves on so quickly. World events and domestic events mean that the papers' headlines quickly disappear and the online version of the next story is quickly posted. Sometimes this subject matter is too shocking for families to discuss. Sometimes the detail is so depraved that you want to starve your children, social groups or contacts of the actual detail of particular incidents. But it is proper for our country to stop and pause at the time of these significant events because the children who are involved—all young girls who are now, in many cases, in their early 20s—will have had their lives changed forever. I acknowledge that even the conversation that we're having today or the newspaper reports that we've seen over the last couple of days will be a trigger for other victims of child sexual abuse. The discussion of the very topic will be very difficult for them and for their loved ones to contemplate.

But it is appropriate and absolutely necessary that we remind ourselves that people of this character infiltrate our society and that people in positions of responsibility commit these most egregious acts against those who are most vulnerable in our society.

Today we recognise the efforts of the Australian Federal Police, particularly those officers who are attached to the Australian Centre To Counter Child Exploitation, the police officers, the investigators, the analysts, and all of those from the Queensland Police Service and the New South Wales Police Force and their international counterparts. This is a very significant investigation that's gone on for some 10 years or so. It has spanned across states and jurisdictions.

We know that the prevalence of child sexual abuse is at record levels because of the use of digital technology. We know that—I want to say a human being—an individual here in Australia can direct a movie taking place in the Philippines of a child being sexually abused and penetrated and can direct from afar the actual abuse of that child. It's incomprehensible on many levels, but it needs to be spoken about because we can't pretend that it's not happening or think that, if we don't speak about it and ignore it, the problem will go away and our children won't be affected by the next offender.

It is one of those crime types where, unlike the stories you'll see on the news tonight of a stolen car or footage of a robbery or an assault that's taken place and a victim that's interviewed, we don't see the victims' faces in this crime type. We don't hear the detail even of, in some cases, the offender's name because of the protections, rightly or wrongly, under the law. And the impact on the victims, on the investigators and on our society is enduring.

As the Minister for Home Affairs, I'm incredibly proud of the work that we did to establish the Australian Centre To Counter Child Exploitation. It was a $70 million investment. In my budget reply speech, I called for the government—and we would certainly support and welcome an announcement by the government—to double the work and the funding to the Australian Centre To Counter Child Exploitation. It's essential because the work continues to compound. The investigation is more complex. We read in relation to this particular matter that a child's cot sheet was identified after painstaking work by the investigators to have been provided by a particular linen supplier to childcare centres, which led to the offender being identified in relation to that particular matter. That takes gruelling, hard work and investigative capacity, and additional support needs to be provided. I think that much is clear.

In highlighting this case today, I do believe that our parliament has a continuing responsibility to do everything we can to protect the children of this country, to make sure that we protect their sanctity and their innocence to allow every Australian child to grow up in a harmless environment that's conducive to the development of their mental health, to make sure that they have the best capacity to form functional, interpersonal relationships later in life. But if we allow this to just slide into yesterday's newspaper, then we won't be doing a service to the work of the investigators here, and we won't be helping those investigators send a message of deterrence to the person who's thinking about offending next. That's why I think it is incredibly important for the government to stop as well and listen to this issue and make the decision in relation to additional support. As I said, we would very much welcome the Prime Minister's efforts in that regard.

I also want to put on the record our very strong interest in supporting government action in relation to a child sex offenders registry. I believe the time has come. There's been much debate about this in recent years from people in favour, people against and people of good character who argue for and against the establishment of a registry.

But I do believe that we need a parliamentary joint task force to be established to review the effectiveness of working with children checks and to carry forward as a matter of urgency the establishment of a national child sex offenders registry, which I proposed as Minister for Home Affairs. The debate and the time for serious contemplation of that registry has now come, given the circumstances where an individual, over a protracted period of time, could work at multiple points where young children are supposed to be cared for and could commit these offences undetected in so many workplaces amongst so many other colleagues, parents and children. It was through no fault of any of those people that the attention of the police wasn't drawn to the particular offences. The registry may have been one element that could have averted further victims falling at the hands of this individual in relation to the alleged offences that have taken place.

The engagement of the states obviously is absolutely necessary, but, for our country, the time has come. There are certainly many international jurisdictions where a registry operates successfully. There is the opportunity in our country for that debate to now be had. And I hope that, in the time that we spend in the chamber today, we send a clear message of support to all of those who are involved in protecting children around the country—not just the government investigative bodies but also the not-for-profits: organisations like the Daniel Morcombe Foundation and those who are involved in spreading a message in childcare centres, other places of education and workplaces.

I say to all Australian families: please take the time tonight to have the conversation with your children and to go to the websites that are trustworthy: the eSafety Commissioner's work, the work of the Morcombe foundation and many others. Look there at the ways in which you can further empower and inform your children, because to do so will protect the most vulnerable in our society. For all of us here, that is the most important duty that we can undertake.

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