Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Minister. I was probably just reading through your late supplementary explanatory memorandum when you addressed that in your second reading speech, so I do thank you for addressing that again.

Minister, I want to now address the issue that I briefly flagged earlier. I heard—and, by the way, I don't believe I heard this from a minister, but I did hear it from some government backbenchers—that 'young people' are not going to be caught by the mandatory minimum sentencing provisions. With respect to those senators, that is most certainly not true. Anyone who is 18 years and one day old can certainly be considered a 'young person'. I want to give you some examples, Minister, because I think it's important that senators understand what they're voting for here, and I give you these examples in good faith. Could you confirm that if, on an overseas holiday between two families, an 18-year-old and a 15-year-old commenced a romantic relationship and they touched each other in a sexual way, the person in that relationship who is 18 years and one day old will have to be sentenced to five years imprisonment, if found guilty of an offence. Could you confirm that please, Minister.