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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-04-06 Daily Xml
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CYBERTHUGS

Ms THOMPSON (Reynell) (14:31): My question is to the Attorney-General. Can the Attorney-General inform the house about the government's work to counter cyberthugs and the important role of consultation in shaping laws against this hateful trend?

The Hon. J.R. RAU (Enfield—Deputy Premier, Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Urban Development and Planning, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Food Marketing) (14:31): I thank the honourable member for her question. The parliament may well be aware that a few weeks ago we indicated that we were looking into finding some remedies at a statutory level for some of the antisocial behaviour that is now associated with the internet. There are two distinct problems that we are particularly concerned about.

The first one is filming without consent of embarrassing or humiliating images. The disturbing aspect of this is that it appears to be the case that some of these images are engineered, that is, the whole event is engineered by a team of people working cooperatively together, that is, everybody except the victim, in order to achieve one of these films, which are then later on distributed for the bizarre amusement of some other people.

The second aspect that we are concerned about is that second element, which is the distribution. We not only have, these days, distribution of these films or images which are achieved by actually victimising an individual who is completely innocent of any involvement in the matter, but we also have circumstances where individuals, who at the time they are filmed were quite happy to be filmed and might have even been happy at the time for the individual who holds the film to possess that film or that image, then discover at some later point in time that that image has been presented or published to the whole world by that person very much without their consent and very much in circumstances which they find to be completely humiliating.

As new technology is becoming more evident around the community, we are going to have to deal increasingly with problems which are related to new technology and how it is being used and abused. I would just like to make the point that, in as much as we are talking about films and images of that type, we have gone from a situation, perhaps, only five or 10 years ago where in Australia there were only five major broadcasters, all of them licensed to the commonwealth government and all of them regulated to some significant degree, albeit some of us from time to time might not have thought they did things perfectly.

However, now we are in a situation where every person with a mobile phone, pretty well, is a broadcaster if they wish to be, and those people, many of them, are being completely irresponsible about what they are doing, and innocent people, often children, are the victims of the behaviour these people get involved in. It is disgusting and it has got to be something that we as a parliament collectively try to do something about.

I realise that the commonwealth parliament has responsibility in relation to telecommunications policy, and I realise that we are not able to regulate what goes on in the telecommunications sector. However, we do have jurisdiction up to the point that a person presses the button on their computer. That is the zone that I think we need to be looking at, and looking at carefully.

As I have already said, this is a matter that is of great concern to me and other members of the government, and I hope that members of the opposition too are concerned about these matters. We are now in a consultation phase in relation to the construction of some offences relating to these matters. I would encourage anybody in the community who has an interest in these very important issues to please get on the website and have a look at it. I make no apology for the fact that the government is actually interested in consulting on this issue because we would like to get it right.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Bragg!

The Hon. J.R. RAU: If members opposite have views about this we would obviously be happy to hear what they have to say as well. They are welcome to be part of the consultation. The interesting thing—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Again, I know I am being berated by the Hon. Mr Wade in another place. I have been accused of committing the terrible sin of consultation. It has gone on too long, he says. He is sick of consultation. He does not want consultation. He wants the government to legislate and then mop up afterwards. Well, that is not the way we want to deal with this.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Bragg! I warn the member for Bragg.

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Of all of the consultations that we have had underway, and I think at one point there were 13 or 14 of them—but the numbers are coming down, member for Bragg—we are introducing bills, even today there are three more coming in, but in all of those consultations we have had no contribution from members opposite. They have had an opportunity to be involved in the consultation process.

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Can you tell me which one?

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Which one have you been involved in?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.R. RAU: Members opposite can get involved in this if they want to. Go on the website. Get involved. Make a contribution.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

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