Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the very important Crimes Legislation Amendment (Sexual Crimes Against Children and Community Protection Measures) Bill 2019. We must remain resolute in our commitment to protect children from all forms of abuse. As a former chair of Father Chris Riley's Youth Off The Streets and having supported his work over many years, I have seen firsthand the effect of child abuse on young people. Indeed in my maiden speech, on 14 June 2005, some years ago, I referred to Father Chris and his teachings to me that there's no such thing as a bad child—just bad circumstances. And I stated that I had come to understand the resilience of our young against terrible adversity and that a child was abused every 13 minutes across Australia—and we were talking back in 2005—and that the perpetrators of crimes against children and those who protect them deserve the severest of punishments. We must confront and end child abuse and the exploitation of youth once and for all. So fast-forward 15 years, and here we are. Let's not forget that those who are abused do go on to abuse themselves and therefore we need to be strong and decisive in our actions so that this cycle is broken.

In a speech to the National Press Club on 19 February 2020, AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw spoke about countering child sexual exploitation and abuse and he stated:

Today I want to lift the lid on society's dark secret. I want to shine a light on the ever-increasing online exploitation of our children, by those that seek to do them harm. Deviant and perverted offenders, with global reach, who are using the dark web to evade law enforcement detection and commit heinous crimes against our most vulnerable.

…   …   …

Over a decade ago, the AFP received about 300 referrals for online child exploitation material a year. Last year the AFP had just under 17,000.

Indeed, on 28 May this year, the commissioner made comments which I think are very, very pertinent to our discussion today. He talked about the increase of exploitation because more people were spending more time on the dark web. He says:

People probably don't realise that it's child abuse, it's rape, it's torture. It's horrific. It's not naked young girls or naked young boys. These are people who are being sexually assaulted—sometimes in real time. Those videos are shared. It's absolutely abhorrent. My view is that these individuals are hardwired this way. I personally have not seen any study that says you can be rehabilitated. That means they will continue to offend.

So therefore it's vitally important that we pass this legislation. In commending the commissioner for his comments at estimates on 2 March earlier this year, and most particularly about comments in relation to paedophiles being hardwired, which I agree with, I stated that the current sentences were not keeping up with community expectations. I asked him whether the time had come for higher mandatory minimum sentences for paedophiles, but immediately Senator McKim—and I see him over there—took a point of order arguing that it was outside the scope of estimates, and for good measure Senator Keneally also chimed in on the same point.

Sadly and for too long, people who sexually abuse children have been receiving grossly inadequate sentences. It's time to send a clear message to perpetrators that their behaviour will not be tolerated, and this is why this legislation is so important. It will strengthen Commonwealth laws in order to provide greater protection to the community through deterrence and punishing child sex offenders. It does four broad things. Firstly, there are new offences relating to grooming activities and for websites and online platforms designed to host child abuse material. Secondly, it introduces new aggravated offences for the most horrific types of child abuse engaged in whilst someone is outside of Australia, including where the child is subjected to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment—the very sort of thing that the police commissioner was referring to. Thirdly, it implements a range of presumptions against bail and presumptions for imprisonment, meaning it will be more likely that child sex offenders will go to prison and stay there longer and it will be harder for them to get bail. Fourthly, it introduces mandatory minimum sentences for the most serious child sex offences and those who are repeat offenders to address the completely unacceptable situation where last year 39 per cent of offenders did not spend a single day in jail.

On the question of mandatory minimum sentencing, this is really what lies at the core of this legislation for the most serious child sex offenders and repeat offenders. I'm concerned that personal beliefs and behaviours may be influencing some judges, and this is reflected in more lenient sentences. I believe the time has come for judges to be positively vetted through some review process before they are appointed to the bench. This will require personal disclosures to ensure conflicts of interest do not arise. Difficult though this may be, I think it is a reform that is necessary.

So let me go back to the bill. It also implements recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse to protect vulnerable witnesses by allowing them to automatically give evidence via a video recorded interview and prohibit cross-examination at committal hearings. The bill complements a broad package of reforms which have already been introduced by the coalition, including tough new measures to stop child sex offenders from travelling overseas to abuse children; Carly's Law, which targets online predators who use the internet to prepare or plan to sexually abuse children; and the Combatting Child Sexual Exploitation Legislation Amendment Bill 2019, which implements a number of recommendations from the royal commission and improves the Commonwealth framework for offences related to child abuse material, overseas child sexual abuse, childlike sex dolls, forced marriage, failure to report child sexual abuse and failure to protect children from such abuse.

We hope that those opposite will change tack on this important bill. We know that Labor refused to support this bill when it was brought before the parliament, in 2017, and we know Labor doesn't have the political will to tackle these abhorrent crimes. We know Labor is divided and not focused on passing these changes. On 3 September last year, the Leader of the Opposition said that people who engage in vile acts against children should have the book thrown at them. Right! However, the day after, an article in the Canberra Times entitled 'Labor weighs paedophile mandatory penalties' said:

"Sometimes what it can lead to is less convictions rather than more," Mr Albanese told 5AA Radio on Wednesday.

"Because judges or juries will make the view that because it's mandatory sentencing, all of the circumstances can't be factored in."

This is a nonsensical argument. It is completely at odds with community expectations. Australians are absolutely appalled to hear that, last year, 39 per cent of child sex offenders didn't spend a single day in jail. The community expects that child sex offenders go to jail, and this is precisely what this bill will allow.

We know that the Greens and parts of the Labor Party don't support mandatory sentencing, on principle. As I indicated earlier, both Senator McKim and Senator Keneally tried to shut me down at estimates when I was seeking to pursue the issue with Commissioner Kershaw, so I don't hold out much hope that they will come on board. Of course, as Senator Stoker said earlier, this position only applies when it suits them, given that they legislated mandatory minimum sentencing for people-smuggling offences in 2010, during the failed Labor-Greens alliance government. Does that mean that Labor does not think that child sex offences are as serious as people-smuggling offences? The Australian public, of course, believes that sex offenders are very, very serious and therefore sex offences are very, very serious and should therefore attract the highest possible sanctions.

In the inquiry into the Combatting Child Sexual Exploitation Legislation Amendment Bill 2019, Labor said:

The problems created by removing judicial discretion in sentencing are well attested. As the Law Council of Australia stated in its Discussion Paper on Mandatory Sentencing (May 2014) there is very little evidence that mandatory sentencing increases public safety. On the contrary, the evidence is that it may have the opposite effect. Mandatory sentencing increases the incentive for defendants to fight charges and may increase the risk of recidivism.

This is not true—absolutely not true. When the Western Australian state Liberal government introduced mandatory sentencing provisions for assaults against police and other officers, there was a 28 per cent drop in assaults against police in just a 12-month period.

Those opposite now have the opportunity to right the wrongs of the Shorten Labor opposition and support these important changes. It's incumbent on the Leader of the Opposition to stand up to those people in his party who, because of some ridiculous left-wing ideological position, oppose mandatory sentencing of child abusers. He needs to stand up, and those opposite need to stand up, for Australian families and support this critical legislation so that our community can be protected against the evils of child sexual abuse.

In the time left to me, I would like to return to the speech of the Australian Federal Police commissioner and some of the comments that he made. The reason we need to pass this legislation is to support him and his officers in their efforts. He said:

I want you to know, law enforcement fights for those who can't, we speak for those who can't. And our basic mission is to prevent crime and disorder—but I want to not only prevent, but defeat and eradicate this crime.

The dark web, as the commissioner says, provide anonymity not only for individuals and networks but for whole websites—servers and untold volumes of material. We owe it not just to this generation but to future generations, because of the insidious nature of child abuse. As I said earlier, those who are abused themselves go on to abuse. Therefore, if we don't break this cycle we will be having this debate in years to come. Indeed, in years to come it will be much worse than it is today. So I urge those opposite to reconsider their position and support the government in passing this very important piece of legislation.