Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank my parliamentary colleagues for their contribution to debate on the Criminal Code Amendment (Deepfake Sexual Material) Bill 2024. This bill will modernise and strengthen criminal offences targeting the non-consensual sharing of artificially generated and real sexually explicit material online.

Digitally created and altered sexually explicit material that is shared without consent is a damaging and deeply distressing form of abuse. The rapid development of artificial intelligence has allowed perpetrators to create extremely realistic but false depictions of real people engaging in sexually explicit acts, known as deepfakes, and share these online. This insidious behaviour is degrading, humiliating and dehumanising victims. Such acts are overwhelmingly targeted at women and girls and perpetuate harmful gender stereotypes and gender based violence. This bill will strengthen the criminal law to protectable vulnerable people from online harm and abuse and to hold perpetrators to account.

The government welcomes the unanimous recommendation of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee that the Senate urgently pass the Albanese government's bill to ban the sharing of non-consensual, deepfake sexually explicit material.

The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee made three other recommendations. The first is:

… that the Attorney-General reviews the threshold outlined in proposed subsection 474.17AA(1) after two years of the Bill's operation.

The second is:

… that the Attorney-General continues work already underway via the Standing Council of Attorneys-General in relation to development of harmonised offences … for the:

The third is that education ministers continue to progress their work to strengthen respectful relationships in schools. There is existing work underway to implement version 9 of the Australian curriculum and there's work by schooling systems to implement age and developmentally appropriate programs on consent and online safety within the context of respectful relationships. The government is considering each of these recommendations and will provide its response in due course.

The bill amends the Criminal Code Act 1995 to modernise and strengthen criminal offences for the non-consensual sharing of simulated and real sexual material online. It will create a new criminal offence that applies where a person transmits sexual material depicting an adult person, using a carriage service, and the person knows the person depicted does not consent to the transmission of the material or is reckless as to whether the other person consents. The new offence will carry a maximum penalty of six years imprisonment.

The bill also introduces two new aggravated offences. The first aggravated offence applies where the person transmitting the material is also responsible for creating or altering the material. The second aggravated offence applies where a person has already been found liable on three occasions for similar conduct at the civil standard under the Online Safety Act 2021. These aggravated offences carry a maximum penalty of seven years imprisonment to reflect the seriousness of this offending. The bill sets out specific defences to ensure these offences are targeted and proportionate.

I might address some matters that have been raised in the debate, before summing up. The bill ensures criminal offences relating to non-consensual sharing of sexual material apply to both real and fake material, including deepfakes. The bill repeals previous offences in the Criminal Code dealing with non-consensual sharing of private sexual material. Those existing offences do not adequately cover the situation where deepfake sexual material is shared online without consent. This was the clear advice of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee's inquiry into this bill and to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement in December 2023.

The new criminal offences remedy this defect and create a strong framework to criminalise the non-consensual sharing of sexual material online. The new criminal offences are based on a consent model to better cover both artificial and real sexual material. Consent is not defined in the legislation and relies on its ordinary meaning, which is understood to be 'free and voluntary agreement'. A person is taken to have consented if the person freely and voluntarily agrees to the sharing of the material. It would not apply where consent was obtained through fear, force or deception.

I want to thank Senator David Pocock for his contribution to the debate. The second reading amendment proposed by Senator Pocock relates to electoral fraud and scams. This is outside the scope of this bill, which is focused on criminalising the non-consensual sharing of sexually explicit material online. As such, the government does not support this amendment, although we remain committed to continuing to improve the transparency and accountability of Australia's electoral system. This includes asking the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters to consider how governments and the community can prevent or limit inaccurate or false information from influencing electoral outcomes, particularly with regard to artificial intelligence, foreign interference, social media and mis- and disinformation.

I also thank Senator Waters and the Greens for their contribution. This bill creates strong criminal offences for the transmission of sexually explicit deepfakes using a carriage service that are in line with the Commonwealth's power to legislate. There is an aggravated offence where the person transmitting the material is also responsible for creating the material. Criminalising the mere creation of such material is a matter for the states and territories. The Commonwealth has engaged with states and territories at National Cabinet and in the Standing Council of Attorneys-General on measures to ban such material. In light of this, the government does not support the second reading amendment proposed by Senator Waters.

In conclusion, this bill will assist to protect the community from the growing trend of emerging online harms and will send a clear message to perpetrators that serious penalties apply to those who create and distribute real or fake sexual material without consent. This is another sign that the Albanese government is committed to keeping Australians safe from technology facilitated abuse.

I commend the bill to the chamber.