Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank members who have contributed to the debate on the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Amendment Bill 2017. I am pleased to see that this bill has received support from members on both sides of the chamber.

The Enhancing Online Safety for Children Amendment Bill contains important amendments to implement the government's announcement of 23 November 2016 to broaden the children's e-safety commissioner's general functions to cover online safety for all Australians, not just for Australian children. The bill will also change the name of the Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner to the Office of the eSafety Commissioner to reflect the expanded general functions. Expanding the commissioner's role and changing the name of the children's e-safety commissioner to e-safety commissioner will make it easier for the public to identify where they can seek assistance and advice in relation to a range of online safety issues, irrespective of their age.

I want to make it clear that the statutory scheme for complaints about cyberbullying material on social media sites will continue to relate only to material that is harmful to an Australian child and the commission's responsibilities for administering the online content scheme under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 will remain unchanged by the bill.

The amendments do not create any offences or civil penalties, provide any new regulatory powers, impose any taxes, or set any amounts to be appropriated from consolidated revenue, because appropriate arrangements for these matters are already in place, or, in the case of civil penalties for the sharing of intimate images without consent, will be sought under future legislation.

The statutory Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner is established by the Enhancing Online Safety for Children Act 2015 and has been in place since 1 July 2015. To date, the Office of the eSafety Commissioner has been a considerable success. The government is now looking to build upon this success with a view to improving the online experiences of all Australians. The office's role has already expanded since its establishment, with the government recognising that there are other groups within the community that can benefit from the expertise of the Office of the eSafety Commissioner.

The commissioner's staff have a wealth of expertise in all areas of online safety. For example, in December 2015 the functions of the commissioner were expanded to include online safety for women at risk of domestic violence. The commissioner also manages the existing eSafety Women website, established with a $2.1 million funding commitment from the government's Women's Safety package announced in September 2015; eSafety Women offers a range of resources to help women manage technology risks and abuse by giving them the tools and information they need to encourage confidence and safety online.

The bill before the House today provides for an important evolution of the eSafety Commissioner's role. It is unfortunate that the contribution of the member for Greenway revealed a lack of understanding of how the criminal law operates today. In particular, section 474.17 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code makes it an offence to use 'a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence'. There have been a number of prosecutions under these existing Commonwealth criminal laws. For example, a successful prosecution in 2015 resulted in a seven-year prison sentence for a man who encouraged teenage girls on social media to send intimate photos of themselves and then threatened to disclose the photos to the victims' family and school.

These laws were also used in the successful prosecution of a member of the Defence linked so-called Jedi Council, which resulted in a 15-month prison sentence. More recently, in February 2017, a Brisbane man was sentenced to 4½ years in jail for a range of offences, including superimposing a picture of his ex-girlfriend's head on images of naked women and posting information online, including her phone number and address, and inviting men to rape and torture her. Additionally, when a representative of the Australian Federal Police appeared before the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee inquiry into the phenomenon colloquially known as revenge porn, he noted that section 474.17 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code says it is 'a broadly drafted offence which encompasses a range of misconduct sufficient to plead the transmission of explicit material without being prescriptive as to the detail of the content'.

The point therefore is that there are already criminal laws in place, and law enforcement agencies are using these laws to prosecute cases of image based abuse. The further point is that, notwithstanding these existing criminal provisions at the Commonwealth level, in most cases victims go to state based police for help. That is why, in parallel, the Turnbull government has worked with states and territories through COAG to develop a national statement of principles for the criminalisation of a non-consensual sharing of intimate images. On 19 May 2017 the Law, Crime and Community Safety Council agreed a national statement of principles relating to the criminalisation of the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. These principles will provide a framework for states and territories to consider when reviewing or developing laws, with a view to achieving a consistent approach to the criminalisation of non-consensual sharing of intimate images, whether in specific offences or offences of general application.

The government is also conducting a public consultation process on a proposed civil penalty regime targeted at both perpetrators and sites that host intimate images and videos shared without consent. A discussion paper was released on 20 May this year, with feedback being sought from the eSafety Commissioner, federal and state police, women's safety organisations, mental health experts, schools and education departments, the Online Safety Consultative Working Group and others. I look forward to seeing the work progressed.

The amendment moved by the member for Greenway asks the House to note 'that Australian laws have failed to keep up with the new ways technology is being used to cause harm, particularly to women and in the context of family violence.' This is a statement that is wholly at odds with the extensive legislative and policy track record of the Turnbull government in dealing with these critical issues. The establishment of the Children's eSafety Commissioner has been an overwhelmingly positive development, and, of course, the government will continue to make enhancements to assist the eSafety Commissioner in its work.

I would like to remind the House of some of the things that have been done by the eSafety Commissioner since the office was established. Since that occurred, the commissioner has: received 370 complaints, since October 2016, regarding the non-consensual sharing of intimate images; finalised over 379 complaints about serious cyberbullying that targeted Australian children; worked with 11 major social media service providers to counter cyberbullying; certified 23 online safety program providers with over 115 presenters delivering programs in Australian schools; conducted over 19,000 investigations into illegal or offensive online content; educated over 194,000 people via virtual classrooms and face-to-face presentations; had over 3.3 million website page views; made the iParent portal available to parents, providing advice on a range of online safety and digital content issues; launched the eSafety Women site, with resources and advice for women; and provided training for more than 1,900 frontline professionals across every state and territory to help women experiencing technology-facilitated abuse.

In the 2013 federal election, the coalition promised to establish the Children's eSafety Commissioner, and we delivered. At the 2016 election we promised $4.8 million over three years for the Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner to develop a national online complaints portal to help counter the effects of the non-consensual sharing of internet images. We also promised $16.9 million over four years for the Office of the Children's eSafety Commissioner to develop an online seniors portal and outreach programs to support, coach and teach older Australians to improve their skills and confidence in using digital technology.

With the progression of this bill and the changes to the functions performed by the commissioner, we will again deliver for Australians on online safety. The claim that the government is failing to keep up is simply not right. In fact, the government is continually monitoring the changes in the communications and online landscape and, as the amendments before the House this afternoon demonstrate, continuing to update legislation and broaden the powers of the eSafety Commissioner as necessary.

The Children's eSafety Commissioner has been a considerable success in enhancing online safety for Australian children and for other Australians. I believe that this bill and the amendments contained within it, if passed into law, will allow the commissioner to have a broader and even more positive impact, extending across a wider range of vulnerable Australians, including older Australians, victims of domestic and family violence and people who have had their intimate images shared without their consent. I call on all members to support this bill.

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