Skye Kakoschke-Moore (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the tabling of the report of the inquiry into human trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices by the parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement. The human trafficking inquiry has raised many crucial issues for this parliament that must be urgently addressed. The committee heard harrowing evidence of human trafficking and slavery occurring both in Australia and through Australian channels. Submissions and evidence received by the committee painted a picture of modern human trafficking in Australia and abroad. This evidence shone a light on the many forms human trafficking can take. Be it the exploitation of foreign workers in Australia, women being trafficked into the sex industry or children and, in some cases, adults being subjected to forced marriages, it was abundantly clear that we could be doing more to protect victims of trafficking, but that we should also be doing more to prosecute the offenders. I welcome the recommendations made by the committee in this important report and call on the government to act on them without delay.

This inquiry also heard evidence about a relatively new but rapidly growing form of human trafficking—cybersex trafficking. Cybersex trafficking, or the live streaming of online child exploitation, is a form of trafficking that is transnational. It involves offenders in Australia who commission the abuse of children in developing countries on a pay-per-view basis. The Nick Xenophon Team supports the committee's recommendation that the Commonwealth government investigate the adequacy of current legislative provisions in criminal offences to address cybersex trafficking, but we believe the committee could and should have gone further.

The Australian Federal Police and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions have reported increases in cybersex trafficking cases over the past three years. The International Justice Mission has helped rescue 201 children who were forced to participate in online sexual exploitation between 2011 and May this year. Our current legislation is failing to ensure that adequate protection is provided to victims, especially to children, who are exploited through cybersex trafficking by criminals in Australia. The Nick Xenophon Team believes the government must amend offences under the Commonwealth Criminal Code to ensure that the conduct of offenders engaging in cybersex trafficking falls within the relevant criminal provisions and can be effectively prosecuted by Australian law enforcement bodies.

In June this year, I moved amendments to the government's Passports Legislation Amendment (Overseas Travel by Child Sex Offenders) Bill 2017 based on very real concerns that by taking passports away from paedophiles they would in turn use the internet to satisfy their sick desires. My amendments related to sections of the Criminal Code concerning Australians who travel overseas in order to engage in sexual activity with children, as well as those who use the internet to procure or groom children for sexual activity. My amendments would have made abundantly clear that a person committing an offence under these sections do so when they are in the presence of a child by a means of communication that allows the person to see or hear the child. In other words, committing the offence virtually should make them no less culpable.

Since I moved these amendments in June, the International Justice Mission has reported that 12 victims of cybersex trafficking in the Philippines, some as young as two years, were rescued by authorities. But these are just the victims that we hear about. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of children remain vulnerable to online predators who seek to commission the sexual abuse and torture of these innocent victims. The government had the opportunity to deal with cybersex trafficking in June, when I moved these amendments. Instead, it allowed valuable time to go by before announcing legislation to deal with cybersex trafficking.

It was revealed in The Australian today that the government plans to introduce a broader package of reform which considers all aspects of the child sex offender crime cycle. This is a welcome announcement, but no details of the proposed legislation have been forthcoming, except for what has been reported in the media. The gaps in current the legislation need to be closed to stop these horrific crimes and to ensure that perpetrators are held accountable.

Efforts of law enforcement agencies must also not be hampered by internet service providers being unwilling to cooperate with Australian agencies undertaking investigative work into cybersex trafficking. In June, I also moved amendments to strengthen the Criminal Code by clarifying what information must be provided by ISPs and internet content hosts where the information requested is in the possession or control of the internet service providers. In almost a fifth of cybersex trafficking cases, police are not getting the vital information they need from internet service providers. Police say cooperation from ISPs is not always forthcoming, and it is often difficult to obtain crucial evidence, such as subscriber records, IP addresses and mobile data, to track down these paedophiles. Internet service providers should have greater responsibility to report this abhorrent crime when it occurs on their networks.

The Nick Xenophon Team is deeply concerned about the increase in cybersex trafficking and, in particular, the exploitation of young, vulnerable children. We believe Australia needs to take a strong stance against cybersex trafficking and for it to be a world leader in the prevention and eradication of this crime. However, legislation alone will not be enough to achieve this. That is why we strongly support the committee's recommendations regarding adequate funding for Commonwealth government programs, including the Australian Federal Police staffing and training and the national action plan to combat human trafficking and slavery. We agree that funding needs to be provided to law enforcement agencies to ensure that they are able to effectively combat and investigate human trafficking offences.

The parliament must act immediately on the recommendations made in this report. It is not enough to expose the depravity of human trafficking in Australia. We must do all we can to end it and to support the vulnerable people who are victims of these horrific crimes.