Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition (Social and Community Affairs)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move the motion as amended:

That the Senate:

(a)

notes that:

(i)

hundreds of thousands of children are driven into the multi-billion dollar commercial sex trade every year,

(ii)

more than 100 countries are parties to the United Nations (UN) ‘Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography’, which opposes the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and requires those offering or delivering or accepting children for the purposes of sexual exploitation, organ harvesting or forced labour to be punished,

(iii)

while Australia ratified the optional protocol on 8 January 2007, some countries in our region that receive aid from Australia have signed the optional protocol but are yet to ratify it, while others are yet to sign the document, and

(iv)

poverty is a key driver in fuelling child and adult trafficking; and

(b)

calls on the Federal Government to:

(i)

encourage countries in the region to become party to the UN ‘Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children’ and implement its requirements in practice,

(ii)

maintain support for poverty alleviation programs directly targeted to assist poor communities particularly affected by people trafficking, and

(iii)

maintain its responses to the needs of victims of trafficking into Australia by improving support services, reviewing access to visas and by assisting the repatriation of those who wish to return to their country of origin.

Question agreed to.