Travel ban: Convicted paedophiles to have passports cancelled

CONVICTED paedophiles will have their passports cancelled and be banned from travelling overseas under tough new laws cracking down on overseas sex tourism.

The crackdown on overseas sex tourism will make it a crime for convicted child-sex offenders to leave or attempt to leave Australia. Picture: Thinkstock

CONVICTED paedophiles will have their passports cancelled and be banned from travelling overseas under tough new laws to be introduced into federal parliament next month.

The crackdown on overseas sex tourism, set to be ticked off by Cabinet overnight, will make it a crime for convicted child-sex offenders to leave or attempt to leave Australia.

The Herald Sun understands offences will apply to all child-sex criminals on state and territory registers with reporting obligations.

And in a move to stop the paedophiles getting around the law by appealing to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, the passport ban will be mandatory and not subject to review.

The travel ban will also apply to dual passport holders on child-sex offender registers.

Justice Party Senator Derryn Hinch. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

The new law, which will give Australia the toughest anti-child sex tourism regime in the world, comes after 780 registered child-sex offenders travelled overseas last year.

They mainly travelled to countries where children are known to be at risk from foreign predators.

The reform is the result of a campaign from Victorian senator and veteran anti-paedophile campaigner Derryn Hinch who said he was “over the moon” that the Turnbull government had listened.

“This will be the greatest thing I could achieve in my first year in the senate,” he told the Herald Sun.

“I could have been on 3AW for years banging away about this, but being elected to the Senate made it possible.”

He said about 40 per cent of convicted paedophiles travelling abroad were frequently heading to South-East Asia on “child rape holidays”.

“It is unconscionable behaviour and we are going to stop it,” he said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop. Picture Kym Smith

There are now 20,000 registered child-sex offenders on the Australian National Child Offender Register.

The ban, which will require amendments to the Australian Passports Act and the Criminal Code Act, were due to be presented to Cabinet last night by Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop and Justice Minister Michael Keenan.

They are expected to be presented for endorsement on Tuesday.

Under current laws, registered child-sex offenders are required to inform police of their travel plans however authorities have found it difficult to stop them from leaving the country.

Mr Turnbull said in November that paedophiles who travelled overseas to prey on youngsters were “some of the worst grubs you can imagine” and “a disgrace to Australia”.

“We don’t want Australians travelling to South-East Asia for these sexual criminal activities,” he said at the time.

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