Paedophile Bill: New minimum sentences law passes, Labor backflips
Labor will now support tough new child sex offender laws after it was accused of helping paedophiles avoid jail time by using a technical vote to strip mandatory sentencing from proposed new legislation.
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Convicted paedophiles could be jailed for life under tough new laws after Labor sensationally backflipped its opposition to mandatory minimum sentences for serious child sex offenders.
Less than 24 hours after attempting to strip mandatory minimum jail terms, including sentences of between five and seven years for serious offences, Labor voted in favour of the federal government’s bill on Tuesday.
Attorney-General Christian Porter said Labor had reversed its position and agreed to support the bill in its entirety in the wake of “fierce public backlash”.
“In all my years in politics I have never seen a great display of hypocrisy from Labor, which claims on the one hand that it wants to protect our children, but then says it is opposed in principle to minimum terms of imprisonment, despite having supported mandatory sentences of people smugglers when they were last in government,” he said.
“It shouldn’t have taken three years of opposition and a public relations disaster today for Labor to finally realise the hypocrisy of its position and now needs to explain to victims whose lives have been ruined by these ruthless predators why it let them down in the Senate (Monday) night.”
Mr Porter slammed Labor for dragging out the Sexual Crimes Against Children Bill for three years due to a principled stance against mandatory sentences despite the party having supported them in the past.
“The idea that Labor opposed (the laws) for three years because they were, as they say, opposed to mandatory sentencing in principle, when they supported it in the Labor Party in Victoria, they supported it at a federal level with people smuggling … made no sense,” he said.
“I would have preferred it be easier, like everybody would have, but ultimately the beneficiaries will be parents and children who are better protected.”
Since 2018 Labor’s national platform has included opposition to all mandatory jail terms, but the party has previously seen fit to inflict this punishment on people smugglers in a bill it introduced in 2010.
“The measures in the bill will address the often serious consequences of people-smuggling activities, including the potential for injury and loss of life on maritime ventures to Australia and the targeting of enablers and financiers of people-smuggling activities,” Labor Senator Penny Wong said at the time.
The morning after Labor used a technical vote to strip mandatory jail terms from the laws, MPs have accepted a decision of the party’s shadow cabinet to support the government’s bill in its entirety.
Labor’s Attorney-General spokesman Mark Dreyfus told the caucus meeting that while the party remained opposed to mandatory sentences on principle, they would not stand in the way of other “good” measures including lowering the burden on child witnesses and a presumption
against bail for offenders.
He said the government wasn’t willing to compromise on the schedule outlining mandatory jail terms, but that did not mean Labor shouldn’t support the laws overall.
The new child sex offender laws are expected to pass through both the lower house and Senate today unopposed.
Earlier, Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten declared the party would not stand in the way of the tough new laws.
Mr Shorten said Labor would again move an amendment to strip mandatory minimum sentencing from the government’s bill, but if that vote failed, they would support the laws imposing jail terms for serious sex offences.
“If the government doesn’t want to accept the Senate amendment, Labor will not oppose the bill again when it comes back up to the Senate,” he told the Today Show on Tuesday.
“Labor people think that this improves the bill, (but) if the government says no, we don’t agree with your amendment I just want to say to Australians that Labor will support the bill when it returns to the Senate, in the event that the government doesn’t agree with our amendments.
“We are not going to stop this law getting through.”
Mr Shorten said he “personally” could relate to people who say “lock them up and throw away the key” when it comes to child sex offenders.
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“First of all, everyone I speak to in Labor from Anthony Albanese down, we think child sex abuse is just abhorrent,” he said.
“A lot of experts have said … that mandatory sentencing may make it harder to catch and convict crook, but just to shortcut the debate which was in the paper today, there is a lot of good stuff in this law.”
Attorney-General Christian Porter last night slammed the Opposition for using a “procedural tactic” backed by the Greens, Centre Alliance and Jacqui Lambie to vote down mandatory minimum sentences of between five and seven years jail for the worst child sex crimes.
“Given that last year, 39 per cent of convicted Commonwealth child sex offenders did not spend a single day in jail, it is extremely disappointing that … Labor used procedural tactics to vote against mandatory minimum sentences,” he said.
The move has been condemned by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, who accused Labor of backing “paedophiles over Australian kids”.
“It is one of the worst acts I have seen in my 20 years in parliament,” Mr Dutton said. “Anthony Albanese needs to look parents in the eye and explain his betrayal of them. Labor has backed paedophiles over Australian kids.”
The vote followed revelations on the same day that disgraced former NSW Labor minister and convicted paedophile Milton Orkopoulos had been charged with 15 more child sex offences.
The pervert pollie was arrested yesterday morning at Silverwater jail after an extensive investigation under Strike Force Glenwarrie, which was set up in January to investigate allegations of historic sexual and indecent assault offences against juveniles in the 1990s.
Police will allege Orkopoulos sexually assaulted two boys who were known to him on separate occasions in the 1990s, at Lake Macquarie and on the mid north coast.
The former Swansea MP spent 11 years in jail after being convicted on a slew of charges in 2008, including having sex with a male between 10-18, possessing child pornography and indecent assault.
Orkopoulos was released on parole in 2019, but was returned to jail after breaking his parole conditions on two occasions.
During Senate debate on the child sex offenders bill, Labor put up a procedural motion to retain the schedule outlining mandatory minimum sentences, and then voted against their own proposal with some crossbench support.
The resulting 31 to 31 tie, which included One Nation supporting the federal government to retain minimum sentences, meant the schedule did not pass and was cancelled from the bill.
Mr Porter said the government remained “totally committed” to the reform and would return the bill to the Senate.
Under the bill, repeat child sex offenders would face minimum terms of one to four years behind bars. A new maximum life penalty for the most serious federal offences and a presumption against bail were also included in the legislation.
Labor frontbencher Murray Watt said mandatory sentencing made it harder to catch, prosecute and convict criminals.
“Mandatory sentencing is wrong in principle, does nothing to reduce or deter crime and worst of all it has adverse consequences,” he told parliament.
The bill will return to the lower house for final approval.
Originally published as Paedophile Bill: New minimum sentences law passes, Labor backflips
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