Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak to a petition, which I am now tabling, of some 4,936 signatures requesting that urgent action be taken to protect our children from accessing internet pornography in public libraries. This is an issue for which I have very strong support from some very important people, who I would like to mention: Brigadier Jim Wallace, the managing director of the Australian Christian Lobby, Bill Muehlenberg from the Australian Family Association, Mary-Louise Fowler, president of the New South Wales branch of the Australian Family Association, and my friend Warwick Marsh, who is the founder of the Fatherhood Foundation. They do great work in this area. I acknowledge his wife, Alison, and Wanda Taylor, who works tirelessly on behalf of the Fatherhood Foundation.

It was at a forum hosted by the Fatherhood Foundation in August 2005 that we heard from psychologist Dr Mary Anne Layden about the pernicious effects of internet pornography, particularly on children. In leaving that forum, I was quite convinced that action had to be taken by the federal government to mandate that internet pornography should not be made available in public libraries, because there is no code which mandates it; there is a sort of loose agreement about filtering. The Australian Library and Information Association conducted a survey which showed that a majority of public libraries did not actually have an appropriate internet filter. That is almost like walking into a public library in the old days and being able to access pornography. You should not be able to do that in a public library; it should be mandated. We here in this place set the tone of community standards, and we must protect our children from the pernicious effects of internet pornography.

This has broad bipartisan support, but what concerns me—and I have written to the Prime Minister on this particular issue—is that it is not mandated. I know that the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Helen Coonan, has put up some incentive program for libraries, and I welcome that small step forward. But, if we are serious about eliminating the scourge of internet pornography from public libraries, we mandate. I know that this has bipartisan support, because 62 members of the government signed a letter to the communications minister requesting that there be a clean feed from internet service providers, so my question is: when is the government going to get serious about taking the necessary steps to protect our children? It is not good enough for the communications minister to hide behind small steps forward, because it is our children at risk. Labor has a clean feed policy on internet service providers. It is about time Helen Coonan stepped down and the government put forward mandatory protection for children in public libraries.

The petition read as follows—

To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives assembled in Parliament:

The petition of certain citizens of Australia draws to the attention of the House:

• The common incidence of children being exposed to and damaged by Internet websites portraying explicit sexual images. These images may involve children/teens, sexual violence, bestiality and other disturbing material. Many such websites use aggressive, deceptive or intrusive techniques to induce viewing.
• Many publicly funded libraries in Australia are proving unfiltered access to the Internet and public libraries are significant centres for internet access for children.
• There is no national standard making internet pornography filters in public libraries mandatory.
• Most family day care centres and long day care centres have access to the internet but the Australian Government appointed National Childcare Accreditation Council has no quality assurance standard making internet pornography filters mandatory in child care services.
• It is the primary duty of community and Government to prevent children being exposed to pornography by placing restrictions on pornographers and those distributing such material through internet pornography filters in all public libraries and child care services.

Your petitioners therefore pray that the House take legislative action so that Federal Government funding to State and Local Government that these Governments use to fund public libraries be tied to mandatory internet pornography filters being installed in public libraries and that Federal Government funding of Australian child care services be tied to mandatory internet pornography filters being installed in child care services.