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Bravehearts is calling for Australia to adopt UK legislation, Sarah’s Law, to allow police greater levels of disclosure to protect against child sexual assault.
Sarah’s Law allows any member of the public to ask police if a person in contact with a child has a criminal record for child sex offences or for any serious violent offences, such as domestic violence, that could pose a safety risk to children.
The law allows police to disclose information confidentially to the person most able to protect the child and covers an offenders’ lifetime.
Ms Johnston’s call for Sarah’s Law comes days after her vocal opposition to the Morrison government’s call for the implementation of a national sex offenders register.
“When you look at the facts it is clear that this solution simply does not work to protect children. It makes the community feel better but it does not protect our children,” she said.
“If government was serious about protecting our kids and if they seriously wanted to deal with these very real dangers they would support our calls for a Royal Commission into the Family Law System and they would toughen up laws that currently release dangerous sex offenders back into our communities.”