Summary

Implements a number of recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse by amending the: Crimes Act 1914 and Criminal Code Act 1995 to: introduce two new offences, and related defences, court rules and protections, for failure to protect a child at risk of a child sexual abuse offence and failure to report child sexual abuse; and introduce a new offence, and related defences and changes to the definition of 'child pornography material', of possessing a doll or other object that resembles a child or part of a child intended to be used by a person to simulate sexual intercourse; Customs Act 1901 to prohibit the import and export of child-like sex dolls and similar objects; Surveillance Devices Act 2004 to allow applications for the emergency authorisation for use of a surveillance device to be made in relation to the new offence of possession of child-like sex dolls or other objects; Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to provide that the new offence of possession of child-like sex dolls or other objects is a serious offence for the purposes of the Act; Criminal Code Act 1995 to: introduce a new offence, and related presumptions and defences, for the possession or control of 'child abuse material' in the form of data held in a computer or on a data storage device; provide that the existing offence of persistent sexual abuse of a child outside Australia applies to the commission of two or more separate occasions of underlying child sex offences overseas over any period of time; amend the existing definition of 'forced marriage' to explicitly capture all marriages involving children under 16; remove the rebuttable presumption that a person under 16 is presumed to be incapable of understanding the nature and effect of a marriage ceremony; require the Attorney-General's consent to commence proceedings in relation to the offences of causing a person to enter a forced marriage and being a party to a forced marriage; clarify that forced marriage offences involving a child under 16 will automatically attract the aggravated maximum penalty of nine years' imprisonment; and narrow the existing defence to offences involving engaging in sexual intercourse or other sexual activity with a child or young person outside Australia, and procuring or 'grooming' a child for sexual activity outside Australia; and Crimes Act 1914, Criminal Code Act 1995, Customs Act 1901 and Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 to remove references to ‘child pornography material’ and reconstitute the current definitions of ‘child abuse material’ and ‘child pornography material’ into a single definition of ‘child abuse material’.