Labor to back bill on minimum sentencing for child sex offenders

Labor is prepared to support a government bill that introduces mandatory minimum sentences for the most serious child sex offences

Labor legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus. Picture: Kym Smith

Labor is prepared to defy its national­ platform and support a government bill that introduces mandatory minimum sentences for the most serious child-sex ­offences, as Anthony Albanese says his party “will assist in any way possible” to stop the crime.

The Morrison government has tried to wedge Labor over the Sexual Crimes Against Children Bill, which was a 2019 election promise and legislates minimum terms of five to seven years for the worst child-sex crimes.

Recidivist child-sex offenders would also face minimum sentences from one to four years.

While Labor’s national platform states that the party “opposes­ mandatory sentencing”, opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus said on Wednesday there was “a lot that this bill gets right”.

“There is nothing more sickening than child sexual abuse,’’ Mr Dreyfus said. “Children are the most precious and vulnerable members of our community. Labor has no tolerance for these crimes or the people who commit them. We want to see pedophiles locked up.

“Labor will work with MPs and senators from all sides to strengthen our laws to protect our children. Nothing should get in the way of this objective.

“Labor will be moving amendments to the bill but, regardless of the outcome, we will be supporting the legislation.”

Labor’s amendments would remove mandatory minimum sentences from the bill and include a statutory review of commonwealth sentencing practices in two to three years to ensure child-sex offenders were being sentenced in line with community standards and expectations.

Opposition senators have warned that minimum mandat­ory sentencing would have perverse unintended consequences, was ineffective in reducing crime and conflicted with the role of the judiciary as an independent arm of government.

But caucus agreed this week to support the bill and the party’s proposed amendments ahead of debate resuming on Thursday, guaranteeing its success.

The Opposition Leader told question time on Wednesday: “Child-sex crime is something that is beyond comprehension and it’s something that should be stamped out and we will assist in any way possible.”

The bill also includes a new maximum penalty for child-sex offences of life imprisonment and a presumption against bail, to keep offenders in custody while they face trial.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton warned on Wednesday “depraved” pedophiles using the dark web and encrypted devices would be hunted down.

Citing the success of Operation Arkstone, which has charged nine men in three states and protected at least 14 children from harm, Mr Dutton said there were individuals online communic­ating and remitting money to other parts of the world but the Australian Federal Police and AUSTRAC were detecting “more and more people”. The government is also consid­ering giving security agencies new powers to access encr­ypted content on social media.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said 39 per cent of convicted commonwealth child-sex offenders did not spend a single day in prison last financial year, while victims were left to face the trauma for the rest of their lives.

The Law Council of Australia was “vehemently opposed to mandatory sentencing as a matter of principle”.

“No one would argue that sexual crimes against children are among the most egregious of any that we face in our society,” the council’s president Pauline Wright said.

“There is grave a concern, however, that if the … legislation is passed, mandatory sentencing may be extended to other Commonwealth offences.

“Sentencing is not and should not be a one-size-fits-all exercise.”