Liberal MP breaks ranks with Coalition to support Labor revenge porn bill
|
Version 0 of 1. Liberal backbencher Karen McNamara has broken ranks with her Coalition colleagues to support Labor legislation aimed at punishing people who share intimate sexual imagery without consent, a practice known as revenge porn. Labor MPs Tim Watts and Terri Butler co-sponsored a private members bill introduced in the House of Representatives on Monday that would crack down on the practice. Under the proposed amendments to the criminal code, anyone who shares private sexual videos or imagery without the consent of those involved will be liable for up to three years in jail. People who run websites or other electronic platforms such as social media pages dedicated to the practice could face an even harsher penalty of five years in jail. McNamara said it was her privilege to support the bill. “We need to send a clear message to the Australian community that the taking of intimate sexual pictures is a private issue between consenting adults and cannot and should not be used as any form of humiliation, revenge or harassment,” she said. Related: Labor to introduce bill outlawing revenge porn “This issue affects all of our community. I look forward to providing a bipartisan approach in regard to making those that abuse the privacy rights of consenting adults, who choose to share intimate photos, be held criminally responsible for their actions.” The minister for women, Michaelia Cash, acknowledged that perpetrators are increasingly using technology to “harass, blackmail and abuse their victims in ways that we have not previously seen”. “This includes the worrying rise in incidents of what is known as revenge porn,” she said. But the minister would not be drawn on how the government would deal with Labor’s bill until the domestic violence advisory committee of the Council of Australian Government (Coag) makes its findings. “The advisory panel to Coag is currently tasked with looking specifically at the use of technology, including revenge porn, and will report back to Coag at the end of 2015.” Labor wants the bill passed without delay. “We think the government should back our bill. We think the government doesn’t need to waste time, sit on its hands, have reviews – any of that. They should just back our bill,” Butler told reporters on Monday. “This is actually quite urgent,” she warned. “We actually need to act now.” Watts wants the revenge porn bill treated in the same way as legislation relating to tackling domestic violence, which has unanimous bipartisan support. “It’s moments like these that we need to see good intentions turned into good deeds,” he said. Watts noted the serious harm that the non-consensual sharing of explicit imagery has on victims. “Many of the people who are counselling victims of sexual assault have made the explicit comparison and said the impacts of revenge porn are very similar to the impacts to women of physical sexual assault,” he said. “It’s that same sense of violation, the same sense of loss of control. So it’s not something that should be minimised.” No federal laws criminalising revenge porn currently exist, though there are laws that make it a crime to use a carrier service with the intent to harass or menace, and Victoria has state laws banning the practice. Watts said that Labor attached a three-year punishment to the offence after looking to other countries that criminalise revenge porn, like Canada, Japan, the Philippines and Israel, as examples. |