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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Tuesday, 22 June 2004) . . Page.. 2436 ..

under 16 and young people under 18, which is fine. That does not change the age of consent for sexual intercourse, but it certainly gives a good measure of protection for kids from 16 to 17. It also inserts a revised offence in the Prostitution Act to ensure adequate punishment for those who cause, permit, offer or procure children for prostitution.

I thank the government for the briefing. I note that the penalties certainly seem to be good, solid and adequate. In some instances the penalties are higher than for similar offences in New South Wales. The opposition supports this legislation.

MRS CROSS (1.07): I rise briefly to express my support for this change to the Crimes Act that strengthens child pornography and child prostitution laws. Our children are society’s most vulnerable members and need to be protected. There is nothing more sickening in society than abuse and exploitation, particularly the sexual abuse of children. This legislation extends our current laws to protect those between the ages of 16 and 18 from becoming involved in child pornography or child prostitution. Further, it makes it an absolute liability offence to use, offer or procure a child under the age of 12 for a pornographic production or for provision of commercial sexual services. This is a definite step in the right direction. It is one of our primary functions to protect the vulnerable in society and I am glad to see that we are doing that this evening. We are further protecting society’s children with this legislation. I thus encourage all members to support the Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill 2004.

MS DUNDAS (1.08): The Democrats will be supporting the Crimes Legislation Amendment Bill 2004 today. The Democrats have long been supporters of ratifying international conventions and protocols on the protection of human rights. The Democrats welcome the Commonwealth’s intention to ratify both the International Labour Organisation Convention 182, concerning the prohibition and immediate action for the elimination of the worst forms of child labour, as well as the optional protocol to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. It is a welcome change in the Commonwealth’s attitude to international agreements, since the Commonwealth currently continues to refuse to ratify the Kyoto protocol or the optional protocol on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. It is also disturbing to see the Commonwealth’s recent withdrawal from the International Court with respect to law of the sea.

Australia is also a party to the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. Ratifying the optional protocol will continue our protection of the rights of children. However, international conventions, treaties and protocols need to be observed as well as ratified. This means that we must stop practices that violate these conventions, such as the mandatory detention of refugees that is currently practised by the federal government. It is contradictory in the extreme, on the one hand, to ratify treaties protecting the rights of children and then, on the other hand, to flagrantly infringe these rights by the arbitrary detention of children. If the Commonwealth is truly committed to protecting the rights of children it would cease these abhorrent practices immediately.

Here in the ACT, we have agreed to pass the general content of the International Protocol on Civil and Political Rights into law through the Human Rights Act. This bill today is a further commitment by the Assembly to our agreement of recognising

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