DANIEL’S LAW
DANIEL’S Law passed Parliament this week, marking a significant milestone in the fight to keep children safe.
Few people wouldn’t know about the terrible abduction and murder of Daniel Morcombe on the Sunshine Coast in 2003.
His parents, Denise and Bruce, led the fight for justice. From their grief and loss, they turned this tragedy into a movement to create a powerful legacy of advocacy to educate all children as to how to stay safe through the Morcombe Foundation, and see stronger laws passed around the Country.
In Queensland, under the Crisafulli Government, that means a new publicly available child sex offender register, under new laws named after Daniel.
The Register will consist of three tiers, helping make Queensland safer by protecting children from reportable sex offenders.
Daniel’s Law delivers on a key election commitment and is the next stage of the Making Queensland Safer Laws.
Daniel’s Law will establish the Queensland Community Protection and Public Child Sex Offender Register and will consist of three tiers, in a multi-layered approach to child protection. The three tiers include:
A publicly available website with photographs and personal details of reportable offenders who have failed to comply with their reporting obligations and whose whereabouts are unknown.
A locality search application providing photographs to identify certain reportable offenders living in the local area.
A parent and guardian application. Parents, carers and guardians will be able to apply to the police to ascertain whether an adult having regular unsupervised contact with their child is a current reportable offender.
Daniel’s Law is in recognition of Daniel Morcombe, whose life was lost through tragedy, following more than two decades of advocacy from his parents, and through the Daniel Morcombe Foundation.
Daniel’s Law will put the rights of children and parents before the rights of high-risk perpetrators. Safeguards will be in place to prevent the misuse of information, while unlocking information for parents and carers to help bolster child protection.
The Queensland Community Protection and Public Child Sex Offender Register will be administered by the Queensland Police Service, which is already responsible for monitoring reportable offenders.
The Crisafulli Government has also launched a Child Safety Commission of Inquiry, with the Blue Card Child Protection Review currently underway.
KEEP IN TOUCH
If there is anything that I can be of assistance with, please contact me care of my office on 5406 7100 or maroochydore@parliament.qld.gov.au