Federal parliament has passed new laws to stop convicted pedophiles from travelling overseas on “child rape holidays”.
Derryn Hinch described Tuesday as one of the greatest days of his life as the legislation to strip pedophiles of their passports cleared the Senate.
In 2016 alone, 800 men on the sex offender register travelled overseas, with 300 travelling to South-East Asian countries like Indonesia and Cambodia.
“You know they’re not there to go to Angkor Wat and look at the temples,” Senator Hinch told parliament.
He credits actress Rachel Griffiths with raising the idea of a passport ban, and insists it’s just the beginning.
New legislation will be introduced by the end of the year to ensure pedophiles can’t hire overseas children to perform live sex acts on the internet, he said.
He said he had evidence this was occurring, with an Australian pedophile hiring a three-month-old baby in the Philippines.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said two registered child sex offenders were travelling overseas everyday.
He confirmed Justice Minister Michael Keenan was working on a new tranche of legislation for the spring sitting of parliament.
AAP
