Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

I move opposition amendment (1) on sheet 8364 revised:

(1) Page 2 (after line 11), after clause 3, insert:

   4 Review of operation of amendments

  (1) Within 3 years after the commencement of this section, the Minister must cause to be conducted an independent review of the operation of the amendments made by this Act.

  (2) The Minister must cause to be prepared a written report of the review.

  (3) The Minister must cause copies of the report to be tabled in each House of the Parliament within 15 sitting days of that House after the day on which the report is given to the Minister.

I'd like to put a few remarks on the record. Labor circulated sheet 8364 containing a review clause. This sheet was today revised and recirculated to deal with the contingency that the amendments proposed by the Nick Xenophon Team are yet to be determined in this place or agreed to in the Senate. Whether or not a civil or a civil and criminal scheme is established by this bill, Labor believes that it should be reviewed in due course. I appreciate the commentary in contributions by others that they will support that.

As I stated in my speech on the second reading of the bill, Labor believes that, within three years of its commencement, the minister should cause a review to be conducted of the new statutory regime for the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, along with the preparation and tabling of a report in each house of the parliament.

While the Enhancing Online Safety Act 2015 already includes a review clause, at section 107, this review is due to commence in the very near future, and we believe that would be an inadequate time frame for the proper testing of this piece of legislation. If conducted in a timely fashion, that review will assess the cyberbullying regime that first commenced in 2015 but will be of limited efficacy given that the new regime for image based abuse won't have been in operation for very long at all.

I detailed the concerns of various stakeholders in my second reading contribution this morning. These included commentary from the DIGI Group, who gave evidence about the efficacy of measures in this bill. In accordance with best practice, Labor thinks there should be a further meaningful review of any new regime for image based abuse once it's been in operation for a substantial period. I seek the support of the Senate for Labor's detailed amendment.