Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week is National Child Protection Week. Nothing is more important to all of us here than keeping our children safe. I want to take this opportunity to talk about the vital work the Albanese Labor government is undertaking to protect all children from sexual abuse.

The National Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Child Sexual Abuse 2021-2030 is Australia's 10-year strategy to do everything we can to keep children safe by preventing and responding to abuse in all settings, including in families, in institutions, and online.

Under the national strategy, the government is working in partnership with law enforcement investigative agencies and the community to progress work in five key areas. This includes supporting and empowering victims and survivors, education and raising awareness, offender prevention and intervention, and enhancing national approaches to children who have displayed harmful sexual behaviours.

The government is developing a national campaign to raise awareness and encourage the community to act to prevent child sexual abuse. The campaign's first phase aims to protect children and young people from sexual abuse by helping adults understand that child sexual abuse is always preventable if they are aware of the risks and committed to communication with the children in their lives.

The Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, led by the Australian Federal Police, does incredible work keeping children safe from exploitation.

The task, at times, seems overwhelming. Last year alone, they received more than 40,000 reports of online child exploitation. The fight against online child exploitation necessarily involves examining large volumes of images and videos—a task that takes a toll on the incredibly dedicated officers involved in this difficult but essential work to keep kids safe from these evil predators. Monash University and the Australian Federal Police are developing artificial intelligence technologies to assist them in this fight by identifying children in safe situations, thus making it simpler to identify unsafe situations and flag potential child exploitation material.

To train the algorithm in a way that does not cause any further harm, the centre has launched the My Pictures Matter initiative. During Child Protection Week, the ACCCE is asking all Australians aged over 18 to help with this project by providing their childhood photographs to the My Pictures Matter project by uploading them through the official website. I will be uploading a photo of myself from my childhood to help contribute to this important initiative, and I would ask all members and senators to contribute their childhood photos too so that we can help make this technology a powerful tool to fight child abuse.

All children are precious and vulnerable members of our community. National Child Protection Week reminds us that we all have a responsibility to keep children safe.