MEDIA RELEASE Tuesday, 28 October 2025
Labor’s refusal to back the Coalition’s tougher sentences for child sex offenders is a betrayal of victims and a disgrace to every Australian family.
The Crimes Amendment (Mandatory Minimum Sentences for Child Sexual Abuse) Bill 2025, introduced by the Coalition, would have ensured the most serious child sex offenders face mandatory jail time – five years minimum for a first offence, six years for repeat offenders.
Instead, Anthony Albanese’s Government has chosen politics over the protection of children.
This Bill would have closed loopholes exposed in shocking cases like the Maloney case in Victoria, where the offender abused his own daughter on at least 19 separate occasions, producing 77 videos of child abuse material.
For the two Commonwealth offences, the court imposed just six months prison before being eligible for release – six months for the production and transmission of child abuse material. That is not justice. It is an outrage.
Both the Albanese Government in Canberra and the Allan Labor Government in Victoria should hang their heads in shame.
Australians are also rightly horrified at the continuing allegations of abuse occurring in childcare. The ABC’s Four Corners program last night identified almost 150 childcare workers convicted, charged, or accused of sexual abuse and inappropriate conduct against children. Half of the 42 people convicted were sentenced in the past five years alone and there are reportedly another 14 currently before the courts.
Families are rightly demanding to know how such appalling outcomes are possible and why Labor continues to block laws that would stop them happening again. That’s why perpetrators of child abuse should know that they face a minimum 5 year sentence for Commonwealth child sexual abuse offences.
More than 82,000 reports of online child exploitation were made last financial year. Law enforcement agencies are overwhelmed, yet Labor refuses to act.
By rejecting this Bill, Labor has made its priorities clear: protecting perpetrators instead of protecting children.
The Coalition will never accept a system that excuses the inexcusable. Only a Coalition Government will always back our police, strengthen our laws, and stand with victims, not offenders.
Children deserve protection. Offenders deserve punishment. It’s that simple.
ENDS
Media contact:
Annabel Clunies-Ross 0428 295 517
Brendan West 0402 556 646
