Law Council says Carly’s Law would penalise ‘thought crime’ in Senate hearing

PROPOSED laws to stop online predators before they harm children would penalise “thought crimes” according to the Law Council.

• Law Council labels Carly’s Law as ‘thought crime’ in Senate
• Sonya Ryan blasts Labor for backing away on Carly’s Law
• Analysis: Carly’s Law a fitting legacy for victim of predator
• Carly’s Law: Designed to protect kids from online predators

PROPOSED laws to stop online predators before they harm children would penalise “thought crimes” according to the Law Council.

But the Law Council’s Orwellian description of ‘Carly’s Law’ was dismissed by Senators at a hearing in Canberra on Friday.

Under the proposal, adults who prepare for, or plan to, cause harm — which could include emotional damage — or engage in sexual activity with a minor, would face serious jail time.

It would also outlaw misrepresenting age as part of a plan to cause harm to a child.

To be found guilty, an adult would not need to have direct contact with a child, but could have created a social media profile with the intent of using it to harm or groom a child.

Carly’s Law was the result of campaigning from Sonya Ryan, whose daughter Carly was murdered in 2007 when, at the age of 15, she met up with a 47-year-old paedophile who had pretended to be an 18-year-old.

Sonya Ryan, founder and CEO of The Carly Ryan Foundation, at a senate hearing in Canberra.

National criminal law committee member Stephen Odgers SC said it was the Law Council’s view that for a person to have committed an offence, their conduct must be more than “merely preparatory”.

“Criminal liability should not be imposed with the possibility of severe punishment at a point where a person is merely contemplating a crime and has still not formed an intention to commit it and may never form that intention,” he told the inquiry.

“This new offence will encourage the police to arrest and press charges upon the slightest conduct suggesting an intention to commit a crime and will move our society increasingly close to one controlled by thought crimes and thought police.

“To safeguard individual liberties, the law should require conduct that unambiguously indicates an intention to commit an offence.”

Senator Derryn Hinch asking questions during the Carly’s Law senate hearing. Picture: Kym Smith

Liberal Senator for South Australia David Fawcett said he believed the act of falsifying age showed an adult had gone beyond a “thought crime”.

Senator Nick Xenophon said he was “very disappointed” the Law Council had gone down that path.

“This thought police notion is complete nonsense. It seems to be more of a thought bubble,” he said.

Labor came under fire for its qualified support of the Bill, after its shadow legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus raised concerns expressed by the Law Council in a speech in Parliament this week.

“Labor is not delaying this Bill — it is currently in the House of Representatives, where the Government could have chosen to bring on a vote this week, but it did not,” he said on Friday.

“Labor would have voted in its favour had this occurred.

“As with all Bills of an unprecedented nature, it is right that Carly’s Law be referred to committee so it can be properly analysed — Carly’s Law is too important not to get right.

“We all know Attorney-General George Brandis cannot be trusted to draft Bills correctly, so this is an important part of making sure the Bill is the best it can be.”