Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Ellison. Will the minister update the Senate on the Australian government’s efforts to combat online child sex exploitation?

Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Payne for what is a very important question on a subject which is of great concern in the Australian community. There is no worse crime that can be committed than the sexual exploitation of a child. A year ago, almost to the day, the Australian Federal Police Commissioner and I launched a team in the Australian Federal Police to crack down on online child sex exploitation. Indeed, at that time our tough new laws came into effect, and in the last year there has been a great deal of activity and a lot of good work done by the Australian Federal Police in cracking down on paedophilia on the net.

To give you an idea: there have been nine arrests in relation to 35 charges that are currently before the courts. These matters included seizures of tens of thousands of items of child pornography and child abuse images and in excess of a thousand video clips, as well as the closure of Australia’s first web-hosted child pornography internet site in Perth. A further 20 suspects have had child pornography or child abuse images located at their premises during the execution of Australian Federal Police search warrants and are having briefs of evidence prepared for prosecution. One hundred and eleven packages of evidence involving overseas suspects have been forwarded to foreign law enforcement agencies, ensuring the global nature of this crime is addressed. Five hundred and thirty-five packages of evidence involving offences committed prior to the introduction of the Commonwealth legislation were referred to state and territory police for action in their jurisdictions.

This is a very serious issue and one which the Australian Federal Police are working internationally to combat. The Australian Federal Police, I am pleased to say, have given in-country training in relation to this issue in countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Myanmar, China, Hong Kong, Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore. Further training is scheduled in the Philippines later this month. It is fair to say that Australia is a world leader in the fight against child pornography and especially the abuse of children online. Our tough new laws crack down on the downloading of child pornography on the net and accessing it. They also target those paedophiles who use the internet to groom their victims and who hide behind the internet to target young children in order to carry out serious child sex crimes.

As well as the developments I have outlined and the good work that is being done by the Australian Federal Police, I am pleased to say that Australia is a partner with other countries in what is a virtual global task force in which officers are continually penetrating the internet, targeting internet chat rooms to track down those child sex predators who use the internet to carry out child sex crimes. Of course, country borders are irrelevant when you are using the internet, and we are targeting both domestically, with the cooperation of state and territory police, and internationally, with overseas law enforcement. This is a very serious crime indeed and one which we all roundly condemn. I certainly want to place on record the government’s appreciation of the great work being done by the Australian Federal Police and law enforcement in targeting what is an abominable crime.