Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Centenary of ANZAC) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the Criminal Code Amendment (Protecting Minors Online) Bill 2017. This bill is the result of a campaign by the mother of Carly Ryan, Sonya Ryan, whose daughter was brutally raped and murdered by an online predator. There have been multiple versions of this bill, which will enable the police to intervene earlier in circumstances where an adult has misrepresented their age to a minor. The bill before us today has the intent of ensuring that our laws are adequate to keep children safe online. This bill goes further than previous versions of the bill. It addresses any conduct that is undertaken using a carriage service with the intention to prepare or plan to cause harm to, engage in sexual activity with or procure for sexual activity a person under the age of 16. This bill also goes further than the existing procurement and grooming offences in the Criminal Code because it captures a broader range of preparatory conduct. It captures preparing or planning to cause harm where there is no sexual intent. It does not require communication with a specific recipient, which will enable the offence to capture individuals broadcasting information to a large audience.

The evolving nature of the internet means that we must continuously update our laws to keep pace with the rate of change. There are new ways that people are using technology to cause harm, particularly to children, and it is our responsibility as parliamentarians to keep children safe. Carly Ryan was the first Australian girl to be murdered by an online predator, in 2007. She thought she was chatting to a boy her age when it was actually a 50-year-old, Garry Newman, an online sexual predator who had a complex web of online identities used to groom underage girls. Since then, the online presence of predators has increased, as has their ability to do harm to children online. Since the tragic death of Carly Ryan, her mother, who is in the chamber today, has fought to change the law to ensure that no other Australian children meet the same fate. Sonya Ryan should be commended for her efforts, and the bill before us today is a tribute to her advocacy. Although it has a long name—the Criminal Code Amendment (Protecting Minors Online) Bill 2017—it is known as 'Carly's law' because it has been brought to the parliament in her memory.

Making new laws that aim to regulate the internet or how it is used is inherently difficult. Nevertheless, it is important that our laws evolve to reflect new online threats, and this is what Carly's law is driven by. The Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, of which Senator Pratt is the deputy chair, has recommended that the bill be passed without amendment. This is after a number of hearings in which the committee heard from multiple submitters about the operation of this bill, including the Law Council of Australia, the Attorney-General's Department, the Australian Federal Police and Sonya Ryan of the Carly Ryan Foundation.

Labor have always been clear that we support the intent of this bill, and I am pleased that the bill is now finally in a form that can be passed by this parliament. We will always ensure that our laws work to keep children safe, and that our police and prosecutors have the powers and the resources they need to prevent harm occurring in the first place.

Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As chairman of the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee that inquired into the Criminal Code Amendment (Protecting Minors Online) Bill—not just into this iteration, but also into previous iterations of the bill—can I say the committee fully supports the legislation, as is demonstrated in the unanimous committee report to the parliament on the legislation.

I just want to take this opportunity to thank all of the submitters, including Sonya Ryan, who gave very compelling evidence. I also thank other submitters. I want to particularly thank the Law Council of Australia, who made a very serious and considered submission to the committee, some of which the committee was inclined to accept; however, in the end we thought that the bill as it stood had covered most of the issues that had been raised. I should also mention that this is an issue that Senator Xenophon has been working on, including in the last parliament, and, with a lot of negotiation and consultation with the Attorney-General, has reached agreement on this bill, which I think satisfies the concerns that all of us have. It is an appropriate bill for adoption by the parliament. I commend it.

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

I also rise to speak on the Criminal Code Amendment (Protecting Minors Online) Bill 2017. As I outlined in my contribution to a previous iteration of this bill, brought to the Senate by Senator Kakoschke-Moore late last year, the Australian Greens are very sympathetic to the intent of this legislation. This legislation is obviously slightly different to the legislation that was previously debated, and it is essential to acknowledge the work of Senator Xenophon—in the previous parliament, and in the current parliament—and his colleague Senator Kakoschke-Moore and the work that they have done, including offering a briefing to the Australian Greens in our party room, which is very much appreciated by all of my colleagues.

I also want to acknowledge that this year is the 10th anniversary of Carly's death. Once again, I share in this forum the condolences of the Australian Greens to everyone who knew Carly and obviously to her close family members. We offer our genuine sympathies for the tragedy that has brought about a number of things, including this legislation.

In broad terms, the Greens are very supportive of legislative measures that address protecting children online. I do want to go to a couple of points raised in the recent inquiry into this bill by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee, a committee on which I sit. Firstly, I note the submission of the Australian Lawyers Alliance, which said:

Preparatory acts for crimes against children are already criminalised … It is thus unclear what the proposed provisions would add in terms of protecting children from harm. The need for this amendment has not been elucidated in the Explanatory Memorandum or second reading speech.

I will end that quote there.

The Law Council of Australia also made a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee to the effect that the conduct which this bill seeks to address may already be captured by offences under section 474.26 of the Criminal Code, which are the provisions relating to using a carriage service to procure persons under 16 years of age, and section 474.27 of the Criminal Code, which relate to using a carriage service to groom persons under 16 years of age. The Law Council submitted further comments, and I will quote now from their submission:

… the Criminal Code need not proceed into this new territory. To do so would risk penalising a person for broad intentions which they may never have acted upon, or worse, risks exposing entirely innocent activity to ruinous prosecution.

I do want to place on the record today that the Australian Greens share those concerns raised by the Law Council of Australia and also by the Australian Lawyers Alliance through the inquiry by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee. In broad terms, those concerns include concerns that the breadth of the offence contained in this legislation is wide, imposes liability very early in a process that may ultimately lead to criminal acts and also criminalises activities that at least potentially have no potential to cause harm. I also want to place on the record our concerns that communication with a young person is not required under the offence which this act would create. The person under 16 referred to in this bill does not need to be a specific individual, and the offence may in fact be able to be proved where a child is not even communicated with or even identified.

As I said, whilst we are incredibly sympathetic to the circumstances which have brought about the legislation that we are debating today and are very sympathetic to the intent of this legislation, the concerns that we have about this bill—concerns that have been raised with the Senate by the Law Council of Australia and by the Australian Lawyers Alliance, through the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee's inquiry—remain of deep concern to the Australian Greens.

Skye Kakoschke-Moore (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Criminal Code Amendment (Protecting Minors Online) Bill 2017, and I commend the government for working with the Nick Xenophon Team to bring this bill before the parliament. I also thank my Senate colleagues from the ALP, the Greens and the crossbench that this bill is being able to be dealt with today as part of non-controversial government business.

This bill proposes to introduce a new criminal offence relating to the use a carriage service to prepare or plan to cause harm to, engage in sexual activity with, or procure for sexual activity, children under the age of 16. Crucially, the act of preparing or planning includes an adult lying about their age over the internet to a child under the age of 16 as part of that plan to harm that child. I cannot envisage a legitimate purpose for somebody over the age of 18 to ever lie about their age online to a child. Having a law that reflects the unacceptability of that behaviour is an important thing to have on our statute books. The significance of this proposed legislation cannot be overstated. The new law will make it easier for police to intervene sooner and for online predators to be prosecuted. This fills the gap in the current Criminal Code and allows police to intervene earlier when a predator is planning or preparing to cause harm to a child, including when they are lying about their age.

But let us not forget why this bill is so necessary: we are here today debating this bill because of Carly Ryan who lost her life 10 years ago to an insidious online predator. Since then, her mother Sonya has advocated tirelessly for this bill to come to fruition and has pioneered education and awareness of online safety for children, to protect children and prevent what happened to Carly happening to any other child.

Sonya is here in the Senate chamber today to witness the passage of this bill. I pay the highest respect to you, Sonya, for your advocacy, working alongside the Nick Xenophon Team, to achieve this outcome today and for your advocacy in protecting children.

Sonya has been an outstanding voice, representing children who are unable to speak for themselves. Her aim is to give every child the opportunity to have a positive experience online, and to have good connections and relationships and stay safe from those intending to cause them harm.

Sonya has worked with police in all states and specialised task forces to protect children from predators, especially in the online space. Sonya has said repeatedly that law enforcement officers have told her that they could be using the proposed legislation right now to prevent harm against children by predators, and this bill will mean they finally can.

Finally, I say this to you Sonya: thank you. Thank you for turning your unspeakable pain and loss into such a powerful and life-changing campaign. You are an inspiration in the true sense of the word. Thank you.

Nick Xenophon (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I echo and share the remarks of my colleague Senator Kakoschke-Moore who has worked so hard on this with me. Since Carly's murder on 20 February 2007 by an online predator, the very first murder of this type in this country, Sonya Ryan could have been consumed by grief and then hatred. However, she has turned a most terrible event into a testament of love to her daughter.

Sonya has campaigned relentlessly to keep children safe. She has spoken to tens of thousands of schoolchildren around the country—school after school after school—to warn them of the dangers of online predators. I have seen the videos of Sonya speaking to schools, and you could hear a pin drop such is her story. It is so compelling, and such is her moral authority that it cannot be ignored.

This bill has come about because, essentially, this parliament got together, even those who disagreed with this bill—the Australian Greens. We have all done it with a good heart and in good faith. The fact that the Australian Greens have said, 'We don't want to hold up this bill. Let it go through as non-controversial business,' I think speaks to their goodwill and their good heart on this.

The government and the Attorney-General, Senator Brandis, whom I pestered on many occasions about this, have been gracious, and the shadow Attorney-General, Mr Dreyfus, similarly has been gracious in the way he has dealt with this. This is the parliament working at its best. This is what happens when we get together on a common cause for what I believe is, overwhelmingly, to the community benefit. This will make it more difficult for predators to do their evil. This will make it easier for the police to intervene. There is no excuse in my view for an adult to lie about their age to a child online and then attempt to meet that child. That does not pass any reasonable standard, any test, in the community.

I say this: it has been a long time coming. This is testament to the love of Sonya Ryan for her daughter, and this act of love, this relentless campaign, this passion of Sonya's, will undoubtedly lead to many lives being saved in the future and many children being protected from harm. So I thank everyone in this chamber from all parties for their goodwill and their good heart for what we have achieved today.

Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to begin by acknowledging Sonya Ryan in the chamber for all the work she has done in the shadow of such a tragedy that has been outlined by my colleagues in this chamber today. This is every parent's nightmare scenario. Those of us who have become parents recently probably think about these things more than we did a decade ago. It also reflects the changing world we live in—a world where our children have access to or can be accessed by services and can access things that simply were not available when people even my age, in their early 40s, were children. Home is not always the place where most children—never all, of course—could be protected, because it can be a place where bullying, isolation and even these tragic sorts of events happen. On behalf of the government I acknowledge the work you have done, Sonya, as I said, in the shadow of an unimaginable, horrific tragedy. I would also like to thank my Senate colleagues and members in the other place for their contributions to the debate on this bill.

This bill introduces a tough new offence for adults who use a carriage service to prepare or plan to cause harm to a child, engage in sexual activity with a child or procure a child to engage in sexual activity. Importantly, the new offence will cover adults who misrepresent their age online as part of a plan to harm a child. As Senator Xenophon has said, there is really no excuse for that; it is impossible to imagine one. This offence will complement existing online child sex offences for preparatory conduct, including grooming or procuring a child. The bill takes this protection one step further, ensuring that those who use a carriage service to plan or prepare to harm children are also captured by the criminal justice system. Evolving technology and the anonymity of the internet provide unprecedented opportunities for online predators to harm and exploit children. This offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years of imprisonment. This will hopefully serve as a significant deterrent to predators who would seek to harm children. This offence will allow law enforcement to take action against online predators sooner and with greater consequence, thereby improving our capacity as a society and as a government to protect our children.

This bill continues the government's proactive approach to legislative amendment in light of rapid technological change. Following its introduction on 30 March this year, the bill was referred to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee for inquiry and report. The committee handed down its report earlier this month, on 13 June, with one recommendation: that the bill be passed by the Senate. On behalf of the government and, I am sure, on behalf of all senators, I would like to extend our thanks to the committee for its concise and fast work. I would like to thank all those who have made contributions to the inquiry and to this debate in the parliament, and, of course, most of all, Sonya Ryan for her tireless work in seeing the passage of this important step in better protecting our children.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.