Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

Under Commonwealth law, it's an offence to use a carriage service in a menacing, harassing or offensive way. The maximum penalty for this offence is three years imprisonment. Under this offence, since 2004, there have been 947 charges proven against 475 defendants, including a number of cases in relation to image based abuse.

We do have laws that address these matters at the state and territory level, but they do differ across jurisdictions, which is why the Commonwealth is working with the states and territories through COAG to support a nationally consistent approach to criminal offences relating to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. In 2017, the Law, Crime and Community Safety Council issued the national statement of principles on the criminalisation of these activities. The two new offences that we are talking about here will impose a Commonwealth lever and higher penalties for more serious forms of abuse.