David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

Crime videos on social media are completely out of control. We are seeing a wave of shocking crime videos right across this country, and the extraordinary thing is that these videos are posted to glamorise and celebrate crime. Every one of these videos has a victim. It might be a person who is asleep in their bed when someone breaks in during a home invasion. It might be someone who is violently assaulted. It might be someone who has their property destroyed or stolen. But every of these crimes has a victim, and people are posting these videos to glamorise that crime. It is absolutely outrageous. It is a problem right across this nation, and it's got to stop.

That's why the coalition today introduces legislation to take action on this very serious problem in our society. The Albanese government needs to take action and support the Crimes and Online Safety Legislation Amendment (Combatting Online Notoriety) Bill 2024 because this bill responds to something that's a very real problem in the community.

There are three things that this bill will do. The first thing is that this bill will make it a federal criminal offence to post a video of crime for the purpose of boosting a person's online notoriety—for property offences, for drug offences and also for violent material. We say, 'If you post a video that is a video of crime, that is designed to make you notorious or the person who is depicted in the video notorious, then that should be a criminal offence,' because we want to send a very clear message that this is unacceptable. If you're thinking about posting one of these videos, if you're thinking about committing a crime and posting a video about it, the message under a coalition government is very, very clear: don't do it, because, if you do it, you could go to jail. Of course, these provisions are a part of the existing telecommunications provisions in the Criminal Code. There's a well-established section of Commonwealth law where telecommunications criminal offences exist, and we will add this crime to those provisions.

We will also enable courts to ban people from using social media for a period of up to two years if they're convicted of one of these offences, because if someone has committed one of these offences they shouldn't be going straight back onto social media. So we will stop that from happening. We will also give the eSafety Commissioner a clear and unambiguous power to take these videos down. She does not have that clear power in relation to these crime videos to require those videos to be taken down, and we will give that to the eSafety Commissioner under this bill.

So, there are three clear elements. The first is a criminal offence if you post these videos online to glamorise a crime, to make yourself notorious. Under a coalition government, don't do it, because if you do you could go to jail. The second element is that the court can also ban that person from using social media. The third element is to give the eSafety Commissioner a very clear and unambiguous power to remove these videos, to get them off the internet, and that's as it should be.

And this is happening all around the country. We have seen terrible examples. In northern New South Wales, in the town of Moree, a video was recently posted of thugs smashing their way into a motel room. We hear the gut-wrenching sounds of a woman screaming. It's horrific. The criminals take the woman's car keys, steal the car and then post the footage online. In another video we see a group of intruders enter an elderly man's home, creep up on him while he sleeps and then rob him and post the video online. Why do they do that? Because they think it's cool. They think it's going to impress their friends somehow—the perverse logic of these videos. It's got to stop, and that's why we need to take action on this issue.

There is a video where machete-wielding youths in a stolen vehicle in Queensland are seen ramming a terrified motorist. Then the victim tells the Townsville Bulletinand I note that the member for Herbert, who has been very outspoken on these issues, is here in the chamber—of the terrifying moment he thought he would die after the thugs collided with his car and it began to spin out of control. He said:

They were ramming me through every roundabout until Hervey Range Rd, where I was pushed through there at 120km/h spinning out of control.

The paper reported that the criminals inside the car later posted this chase online and said, 'You don't chase us; we chase you'—shocking. Then on the Mornington Peninsula: there's a shocking video of an elderly man being pushed of a pier into the dark waters below at night, and the people who posted the video stand there and laugh after this elderly man is pushed into the water. It's absolutely disgraceful.

It is happening all around the country, and the Albanese government has done precisely nothing about it. There is a very well-established part of Commonwealth law, under the federal Criminal Code, where we can take action. We should take action. We must take action. We shouldn't just sit here and say, 'It is all too hard' or 'It's someone else's problem.' This is an issue that affects thousands of Australians. Action needs to be taken, and that's why this bill is being presented today. It is so important that everyone in this parliament gets behind it.

I want to note in particular the member for Groom, who was one of the first people to raise the issue and has championed this issue over an extended period. He's seen the terrible consequences of these shocking videos in his own electorate. I want to cede some of my time to the member to for Groom to also speak on this bill.

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