Summary

Implements a number of recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse by amending the:

and 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; to prohibit the import and export of child-like sex dolls and similar objects; 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; 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; 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 , , and 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’.