I rise to speak in support of the Community Protection and Public Child Sex Offender Register (Daniel’s Law) Bill 2025. This bill bears the name of a young Queenslander whom all of us in this state are familiar with—Daniel Morcombe. Daniel was a 13-year-old living on the Sunshine Coast, and he was on his way to buy Christmas presents for his family when he was abducted and murdered by a twice convicted paedophile. Daniel’s killer was allowed to hide his crimes from the community around him, even to the extent that his wife was not aware of his past violent offending against children.
I particularly acknowledge the tireless and courageous advocacy of Daniel’s parents—Bruce and Denise—who have been advocating for a public sex offender register for more than a decade to keep kids in our communities safe. The Morcombe family used their experience of unimaginable heartbreak to create the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, which provides child safety education to children across the country, and the annual Day for Daniel sees thousands of Australians dressed in red to raise awareness for child safety.
I had the opportunity to investigate this bill and hear from a number of stakeholders and submitters as a member of the Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee. The committee made a single recommendation: that the bill be passed. This bill delivers on the Crisafulli government’s commitment to put the rights of victims over offenders and establishes a public register for sexual predators who target the most vulnerable and innocent in our communities. We cannot allow those who endanger our children to roam around our communities incognito and potentially be in a position to offend again.
We currently have a non-public child protection register, which is administered by the Queensland Police Service, under the Child Protection (Offender Reporting and Offender Prohibition Order) Act 2004. It contains a range of personal details about child sex offenders and particular offenders who pose a risk to the lives of children, referred to as reportable offenders. Reportable offenders are required to keep police updated on their whereabouts and personal details for a set period of time. Failure to comply with these reporting conditions that are set under the same act is an offence. The new public child sex offender register will build on the existing register, while allowing the broader community to become aware of reportable offenders they may encounter and safeguard their child using that information.
This releasing of information relating to reportable offenders will take place in three tiers. The first will be through a public website displaying facial images and personal information of reportable offenders who have breached their obligations and whose whereabouts are unknown to the police. The second tier will be a locality search, which will allow the Police Commissioner to provide the photograph of particular reportable offenders to an applicant who lives in the general vicinity of the offender. Tier 2 will be limited to offenders who pose the greatest risk of reoffending against children. This will include those who offend again after becoming reportable offenders, those who have reporting obligations imposed for the remainder of their life and those whom the commissioner deems to be a serious-risk offender. The third tier of the register will be the parent or guardian disclosure scheme where, by application, parents can obtain information about whether a person specified in the application is a reportable offender.
There are also amendments which will implement strict safeguards to ensure vigilantism does not occur as a result of a disclosure through the register. Any information accessed or received through the public register must be treated as confidential and cannot be shared with others. The new offences that target vigilantism-style conduct are intended to curb intimidation or harassment but, for example, do not include communication between the parents of a child made in a private capacity for the purpose of safeguarding their child.
In line with existing restrictions, the public register will not enable the publication or disclosure of information about offenders. This includes offenders who are under 18 years old or were under 18 at the time they committed a child sexual offence and have not reoffended or engaged in particular conduct as an adult. Other offenders who are participants in a witness protection program or for whom a court has prohibited disclosure will also be excluded from that register. I echo the sentiments of Bruce Morcombe, who believes that this public register will also act as a deterrent for future would-be offenders because they know that their crimes will not remain secret in Queensland any longer.
This legislation is modelled on the Western Australian system, which has been tried and tested over more than a decade. Along with other members of the Justice, Integrity and Community Safety Committee, I travelled to Perth to see Western Australia’s system in operation and to hear of their experiences in administering a register such as this. Western Australia’s register has prevented countless potential incidents by increasing public awareness of reportable offenders and by assisting parents to make fully informed decisions about who their children interact with. Like Western Australia, South Australia has now passed laws establishing a public child sex offender register. Both of those jurisdictions operate a three-tier disclosure system, as will Queensland, with some variations that are specific to each state.
The public register of child sex offenders has been created with critical safeguards to ensure it operates only as intended in this legislation. This bill represents a crucial step forward in protecting Queensland’s children and restoring trust in our justice system. The public child sex offender register will empower families to make more informed decisions about who their children interact with, allowing parents and carers to take protective steps to keep their loved ones safe. I commend the bill to the House.
