The Coalition says it will trial a national register for child sex offenders if elected, providing the option for parents and carers to check with police about whether individuals who interact with their children have prior convictions.
The 12-month pilot, which the Coalition says will cost $21.3m, is modelled on existing schemes that have functioned for more than a decade in Western Australia and the UK.
Peter Dutton said the register would serve as a “powerful deterrent” to offenders and enable parents to be fully informed about their child’s safety. But would it work, and why is it being raised now?
What is it modelled on?
Two similar schemes operating in WA and the UK, the shadow attorney general, Michaelia Cash, told ABC Radio on Monday, which she said had “unmasked thousands of paedophiles to worried parents and guardians”.
The UK’s disclosure register, known as “Sarah’s Law”, was introduced in 2011 after eight-year-old Sarah Payne was abducted and murdered by a convicted paedophile in 2000. After her death, Payne’s mother campaigned for years for greater public access to information about known sex offenders.
It allows individuals, not just parents or carers, to ask police whether someone with access to a child has a record. If there is a risk, information is disclosed by police to the person best placed to protect the child.
In the two years after being introduced, police forces in England, Wales and Scotland received 4,754 applications and made 708 disclosures.
In contrast, WA’s community protection website publicly lists limited information about the state’s most serious convicted sex offenders – including some names, photos and locations.
It was rolled out in 2012 after high-profile cases prompted public calls for greater transparency.
How would the Coalition’s scheme operate?
The Coalition’s disclosure register would not be available to the public and relevant information could only be provided to a parent or guardian – with a number of caveats in place.
Law enforcement would make the decision to disclose whether an individual was a listed child sex offender on a case-by-case basis after an application was made and necessary checks had taken place.
Cash said the scheme would apply in situations where there had been unsupervised contact with the child for at least three days within 12 months.
“What it’s saying to parents is you can make informed decisions about who has access to your child,” the senator said. “It sends a clear message to sexual predators, you have nowhere to hide.”
Once a disclosure was made, the applicant would be barred from sharing the information further – including to other parents.
The 12-month trial would be overseen by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, with the details to be worked through with state and territory law enforcement.
Haven’t we heard this before?
If this policy sounds familiar, it’s because Dutton first proposed a child sex offenders register while home affairs minister in 2019 – but he wanted it to be public.
The national database faced backlash at the time from legal and child safety experts for potentially stigmatising or misidentifying individuals without reducing risk.
Child protection organisation Bravehearts said in a consultation paper in 2019 that while a register may provide a “false feeling of comfort” that parents were being given all the information they needed, “the truth is it won’t”.
It said it would only reveal a small number of offenders, pointing to low disclosure rates of victims and an even lower rate of criminal proceedings. Just 15% of sexual assaults involving child victims reported to police in New South Wales led to a trial, Bravehearts said.
The Law Council of Australia said any register had to be stringently monitored to avoid unintended consequences or errors, and should only apply to high-level offending.
Its then president, Arthur Moses SC, said in 2019 that a register brought “the risk of adverse community attention and vigilantism”, pointing to evidence from the US which showed public sex offender registers did not prevent offending in the general community.
What do the experts say?
The Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare welcomed any action to protect children from harm, but said funding should be focused on prevention and support.
Its CEO, Deb Tsorbaris, pointed to a recent paper which found almost half (45.2%) of those who experienced child sexual abuse had never told anyone about their experience.
“The focus must be on victims,” she said. “On supporting them to come forward and on making sure there are safe and appropriate supports to give victims and their families the help they need.”
Tsorbaris said more work should also be done to tighten the existing Working with Children Check system, which was spread across eight separate state and territory jurisdictions.
“There are so many holes in Working with Children Check processes, not just in information sharing across states and territories, but in the coverage and requirements around who is required to have these checks,” she said.
Does Labor back a register?
The prime minister won’t match the Coalition’s commitment and told reporters on Monday that an information-sharing register was already operating between state and federal law enforcement officials that enabled cross-jurisdictional cooperation.
“There is a national system right now that my government has put in place,” Anthony Albanese said. “He [Dutton] never put it in place.”
The employment minister, Murray Watt, told RN Breakfast the announcement was a “cynical move” from the opposition leader a day out from early polling opening.
In response, Dutton accused Albanese of being “loose with the truth” and said unlike WA, existing commonwealth mechanisms meant information couldn’t be disclosed to members of the public if they had specific concerns.
• In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
