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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2007-10-18 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

PAEDOPHILE REGISTER

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon—Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (15:06): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: I wish to inform the house that the Governor in Executive Council this morning assented to the Child Sex Offenders Registration Act, which, as a result, will come into force immediately. Under this act, South Australia Police have a powerful new tool to monitor child sex offenders. Police will have access to the offender's address, what car they drive, if they change their appearance in any way and if they have any affiliation to any club, society or community organisation with child membership. Should any of these circumstances change, then the onus will be on the registered child sex offender to inform police of that change.

I realise there are some who have criticised the government for introducing this legislation and have described it as draconian. However, I make no apology for attempting to prevent the sordid activities of these offenders. The protection of children is my paramount concern. There are two classes of offender covered by the registration. Offenders will be placed on the register for 15 years for a class 1 offence which includes:

Murder of a child occurring in the course of sexual intercourse or indecent assault of a child;

rape of a child;

unlawful sexual intercourse;

kidnapping;

incest; and

persistent sexual abuse of a child.

Offenders will be placed on the register for eight years for class 2 offences, which include:

indecent assault of a child;

procuring sexual intercourse with a child;

production or dissemination of child pornography; and.

possession of child pornography.

This register will work retrospectively from today, thus catching those already convicted of child sex offences.

Furthermore, this register will include paedophiles who have been convicted of an offence in an overseas jurisdiction. Those who commit their crimes in, for example, South-East Asia will not escape the full force of this law by coming back to South Australia. Fifteen years is a long time to have one's activities so closely monitored, but there is a further sting for these offenders. If any class 1 registered offender commits a repeat offence, they will remain on the register for the rest of their life.

The South Australian register will also be part of a national database. This is important because I want offenders to know that no longer will paedophiles be able to move freely between states safe in the knowledge that their past will not catch up with them. The Rann government has pledged to deliver a safer society to the people of South Australia and to protect the safety of children. Since coming to office in 2002 we have:

increased child pornography maximum penalties fivefold;

made it an offence to procure and groom a child to engage in sexual acts;

criminalised the filming of a child for prurient purposes, regardless of consent;

significantly increased the funding of SAPOL's paedophile task force after the removal of the statute of limitations that prevented sex offenders from being prosecuted for offences that occurred before December 1982; and

given courts the authority to classify and deal with a child sex offender as a serious repeat offender after two offences.

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