By Bridget Spinks
The feared abduction of 50 children from a Perth-funded orphanage on the Thai-Myanmar border for child sex-trafficking in December last year has now been raised in Federal Parliament.
In the House of Representatives, Federal Member for Pearce, Judi Moylan, called for tightening of the Sexual Offences Against Children Bill 2010, highlighting the plight of the missing children from the Sang Khan Buri orphanage aged 10 to 14 on 28 December 2009.
“The Bill introduces new offences for Australians, both citizens and residents, dealing in child pornography and abuse material overseas,” Mrs Moylan told Federal Parliament on 9 March.
“Such abhorrent behaviour is intolerable and illegal for Australians in Australia and should, and now will, be illegal for Australians overseas – just as it ought to be.
“Australians who commit child sexual offences overseas will now be able to be punished even where foreign countries have deficient laws or are unwilling to prosecute.”
In 2007, the former coalition government introduced the Crimes Legislation Amendment (Child Sex Tourism and Related Measures) Bill, with nearly the same measures as those proposed in this Bill. The Coalition’s 2007 Bill lapsed with the proroguing of Parliament.
“Now, over two years later, we have the opportunity to put these measures in place,” Ms Moylan said. Commonwealth, State and Territory laws currently criminalise child abuse and distribution or possession of child pornography within Australia.
In 2005, the former Coalition government responded to increased use of the Internet by purveyors of child pornography and perpetrators, strengthening the provisions of the Commonwealth Crimes Act and targeting the use of carriage services such as mobile phones.
The current Federal Bill builds on those reforms to ensure that the laws continue to remain effective and meet the needs of law enforcement agencies, combatting contemporary offending, Ms Moylan said.
The matter of the abducted children was first brought to public attention when Archbishop Barry Hickey, vice president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, appealed in writing to Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith on 18 February.
“I respectfully ask you to take whatever steps you can to discover the fate of these children and the people responsible for their disappearances. The matter is urgent,” he said in the letter.
Mr Smith responded by ordering Australian Embassy officials in Bangkok to liaise with the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Archbishop Hickey also wrote to Madam Navanethem Pillay, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights based in Geneva, urging her to intervene in the matter with a view to finding the perpetrators and rescuing the children.
“I cannot express how distressing and shocking this incident has been for the Orphanage staff and the other children. It is shared by great numbers of people here in Western Australia, where it has had some publicity,” Archbishop Hickey said in the letter to Madam Pillay.
Adelia and Norman Bernard of Midland, who brought the issue to Archbishop Hickey’s attention, set up the One Heart Association to fund the Sang Khan Buri orphanage to the tune of $700 a month for the care of over 90 children in the orphanage for the past six years.