Crime Point-in-Time Service Updates
Wednesday 9 October 2019 @ 11.12 a.m.
The Crime Point-in-Time Service has been updated to include the Criminal Code Amendment (Agricultural Protection) Act 2019 (Cth) (Act 67 of 2019) and theCombatting Child Sexual Exploitation Legislation Amendment Act 2019 (Cth) (Act 72 of 2019).
Act 67 of 2019
This Act amends the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) to introduce two new offences relating to the incitement of trespass or property
offences on agricultural land.
The first offence would apply where a person uses a carriage service to transmit,
make available, publish or otherwise distribute material with the intent to incite
another person to trespass on agricultural land. This offence would require that the
person is reckless as to whether the other person’s trespass or related conduct could
cause detriment to a primary production business being carried on on the land. A person
found guilty of this offence could face up to 12 months’ imprisonment.
The second offence would apply where a person uses a carriage service to transmit,
make available, publish or otherwise distribute material with the intent to incite
another person to unlawfully damage or destroy property, or commit theft, on agricultural
land. A person found guilty of this offence could face up to five years’ imprisonment,
to reflect the more serious nature of the incited conduct.
Act 72 of 2019
This Act aims to protect children from sexual exploitation by improving the Commonwealth
framework of offences relating to child abuse material, overseas child sexual abuse,
forced marriage, failing to report child sexual abuse and failing to protect children
from such abuse.
The Act implements a number of recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional
Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (the Royal Commission) by:
- creating an offence of failure to protect a child at risk of a child sexual abuse offence
- creating an offence of failure to report a child sexual abuse offence, and
- strengthening overseas persistent child sexual abuse laws
The other measures in the Act forms a suite of child protection measures to target child exploitation that occurs both overseas and in Australia, enhancing investigation and prosecution outcomes at the Commonwealth level. These measures:
- criminalise the possession or control of child abuse material in the form of data that has been obtained or accessed using a carriage service
- prevent certain dealings with child-like sex dolls
- criminalise the possession of child-like sex dolls
- improve the definition of forced marriage
- restrict the defence based on a valid and genuine marriage to overseas child sex offences, and
- remove references to ‘child pornography material’ in a number of Commonwealth Acts and replace with ‘child abuse material’.
These amendments have been updated in the Point-in-Time Crime Service current to 8 October 2019. (NB: Subscription required).
If you are not already a subscriber to this or other Point-in-Time Services then please contact us to find out more or to take a free trial.