Shannon Deery: Let’s not politicise it, children’s safety has to come first

Pressure is mounting on the Allan government to act swiftly to address gaping holes within the child safety system — and while a public register won’t stop every crime, it could be a powerful tool.

It’s been almost 40 years since human headline Derryn Hinch was first jailed for breaching a suppression order to publicly name a paedophile priest.

In 2011 he spent five months in home detention for naming two sex offenders in breach of a court order.

And in 2014 he was jailed again for 50 days for failing to pay a $100,000 fine for breaching a non-publication court order in the Jill Meagher case.

Hinch has made it his life’s work to rally against the stupidity of our longstanding commitment to secrecy over safety.

In that time he has notched up some significant wins — none greater than the ban on child sex offenders from travelling overseas for what he describes as “child-rape holidays”.

There is an argument to say that he has had more success in protecting the safety of foreign children than those right here at home.

That is not a slight on Hinch, but a critique of the absurdity of where we place our values here in Victoria.

Derryn Hinch has made it his life’s work to rally against the stupidity of our longstanding commitment to secrecy over safety. Picture: 10 News

Last week the Herald Sun reported on the case of a Point Cook man jailed for raping a seven-year-old girl at a Melbourne home daycare business.

A line from the report should startle Victorians: “the offender, who cannot be named, was sentenced to 15 years and six months in prison for the ‘abhorrent’ abuse.”

When the man is likely released at the conclusion of his almost decade-long minimum term he will reintegrate seamlessly back into society.

And we will have no idea who he is.

In court the man was known by the pseudonym Marco Gilmore — he may as well have been called the Big Bad Wolf for all the good it does in protecting other children.

In this case there were good reasons to not publicly name the man now — largely that it could tend to identify the victim of his heinous crimes.

But in a decade’s time there must be mechanisms for knowing who he is, in a way that continues to protect the privacy of the victim, who will most likely still be in school.

Now, the government will say there are existing mechanisms to keep him in check.

Each of the Working With Children’s check regime, the Victorian Institute of Teaching and the promised childcare registration system all provide measures to weed out pedophiles.

But, they are not foolproof, as we’ve seen time and time again.

Premier Jacinta Allan has conceded there is urgent work to be done amid a failing system that is not doing its all to protect children.

Jacinta Allan has conceded there is urgent work to be done amid a failing system that is not doing its all to protect children. Picture: Josie Hayden

Remember this is a state in which you can be investigated for child sex crimes and keep your Working With Children check, and also apply to come off the sex offender register, in some circumstances, because it’s an inconvenience.

An obvious step would be to backflip on decades of resistance against a public sex offender register that could be accessed to check the status of those entrusted with childcare.

Been investigated for child sex crimes? You’d come up.

Been charged with child sex crimes? You’d come up.

Been jailed for child sex crimes? You’d come up.

Such a measure need not replace existing mechanisms, but bolster them as an extra layer of protection.

It could help communities by alerting them to the presence of known offenders, place responsibility on offenders and crucially show child protection is the foremost concern.

Of course there are risks with such a public register.

The risk of vigilantism looms large, reduced rehabilitation opportunities are well documented, as are the chances of lifelong stigma disproportionate to crimes.

Then there’s the risk that a public list might divert attention from real risk factors and give users a false sense of security.

The protection of children must always come first. Picture: iStock

Balancing the rights of the accused with those of victims and potential victims is not easy.

But the protection of children must always come first.

A public register need not be a publicly accessible website that can be used by all and sundry to name and shame known and potential criminals.

But there should be a way for, at the very least, employers, to double and triple check the histories of those in their employ in addition and separate to existing mechanisms.

There can be no such thing as being too careful.

Latest crime data shows that in the past decade the number of reported sexual offences against children, per 100,000 Victorians, has almost doubled from 9.5 per cent to 16.8 per cent.

Now much of that would likely be attributed to greater awareness and a higher prevalence of reporting.

But this is not a scourge that is in any way easing.

That the child protection system is in crisis is not in dispute — by the government or opposition — and has been highlighted by the recent allegations levelled at childcare worker Joshua Brown.

And the issue looms as a main one heading into next year’s election.

But it shouldn’t be one that becomes politicised in any way.

When parliament returns on Tuesday the pressure will be on the Allan government to act swiftly to address gaping holes within the child safety system.

No measure should be off the table.

This isn’t about vengeance or vigilante justice, it’s about transparency and prevention.

A carefully managed, publicly accessible register, with appropriate safeguards, could be a powerful tool to help families make informed decisions and pressure authorities to monitor high-risk individuals more closely.

The rights of a convicted predator should never outweigh the safety of a child.

We can’t simply pretend these threats don’t exist.

A public register won’t stop every crime, but it might prevent one, and that should be reason enough to, at the very least, consider it.

Shannon Deery is the Herald Sun state politics editor