Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said he wanted to give power to Australia's parents as he floated the idea of a national, searchable sex offender register on Wednesday.
The Coalition is citing a rise in the number of child abuse cases as the reason for its push and Mr Dutton told The Australian it would be the "toughest crackdown on pedophiles" in the country's history.
What is it?
The register would be a publicly accessible website allowing Australians to search for convicted child sex offenders in their area.
It would list their names, photographs and the nature of their conviction.
Juvenile sex offenders would not be identified if they were under 18 years old.
Can you find out where sex offenders live?
No, not exactly.
The Coalition is making it clear the register would only list the offender’s postcode, not their actual address.
“We've got, I think, a middle of the road approach,” Mr Dutton told 2GB on Wednesday.
“We don't identify the individual addresses, so I think we avoid the problem of vigilante groups or people forming outside particular residences.”
This would differ, for example, to the United States' national register, which lists an offender’s home and work address, as well as vehicle ownership and other information.
In the United Kingdom, the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme allows parents to ask police to tell them if someone has a record of child sex offences.
Is child abuse in Australia increasing?
There was a 77 per cent rise in child sexual abuse and exploitation in Australia between 2017 and 2018, the Home Affairs Minister said.
The latest research from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare showed sexual abuse formed 12 per cent (7,863) of child abuse cases in the country (2016-17).
Aren’t there already registers in Australia?
Yes, there are state-based schemes. Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory have similar schemes with varying levels of public accessibility.
Australia already has a National Child Offender System, but it is a web-based application only available to police agencies.
Could offenders avoid it?
“Yes, of course, they could,” Mr Dutton acknowledged on 2GB.
Offenders could change their names or appearance to evade the public.
That is why local police need to monitor offenders, enforce any conditions of their conviction and update the online information, the government said.
What happens next?
The government has begun consultations with state governments and other stakeholders on the design of the scheme.
The Commonwealth needs the states to accept the idea or it can never be a truly national scheme.
That’s because, while it would be a national scheme, state police and agencies would need to contribute to the register.
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