Proposed reforms to child sexual offences

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Criminal Justice Report makes 85 recommendations to reform the Australian criminal justice system to provide fairer and more effective responses to victims of child sexual abuse. The recommendations span all areas of the criminal justice system including reporting, police investigation, prosecution, offences, conduct of trials, evidence, judicial directions, sentencing and appeals.

As part of the Palaszczuk Government’s commitment to implementing the Royal Commission's recommendations, feedback was sought on proposed reforms to child sexual offences and related legislation. This consultation focused on a draft of the Criminal Code (Child Sexual Offences Reform) and Other Legislation Amendment Bill (PDF, 365.2 KB) and closed on 20 September 2019.

The Consultation Draft Bill contains reforms implementing a range of recommendations of the Criminal Justice Report , including introducing new offences for failing to report and failing to protect a child from institutional child sexual abuse, extension of the offence of grooming, and reforms to sentencing, evidence law and jury directions.

In addition to implementing recommendations of the Criminal Justice Report , the Consultation Draft Bill proposed amendments to:

  • the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 in order to implement recommendations of the Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council report on the classification of child exploitation material for sentencing purposes
  • the Criminal Code to address an emerging issue by creating new offences criminalising the possession, production and supply of anatomically correct, child replicas used for sexual gratification.

The following fact sheets were available to assist with your consideration of the Consultation Draft Bill:

How to get involved

Consultation closed on 20 September 2019.

Last updated:
23 September 2019