Pauline Hanson has called for pedophiles to be chemically castrated along with tougher penalties for sex offenders.
The One Nation leader also called for the establishment of a national database of paedophiles, after responding to questions on the issue from Daily Mail Australia.
‘I support chemical castration and tougher penalties for paedophiles, and the establishment of a national database of paedophiles,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘People are very concerned about their children’s safety and they want strong laws and penalties for those convicted of paedophilia,’ Ms Hanson said.
‘For sex offences not involving children, I consider it appropriate for the presiding magistrate or judge to determine the appropriate penalty under the relevant law.’
However, despite Ms Hanson supporting a national paedophile register, if she does decide to introduce legislation into parliament to make it happen, she may face opposition, with state politicians opposing a similar idea backed by the coalition in 2020.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton announced the federal government was putting $7.8million toward a public register of convicted sex offenders in January 2019 – just before the 2019 election in May.
Under the policy, the names, aliases, photos and nature of sex offenders’ crimes would be made publicly accessible, as would their general location.
Despite the federal government making the funds available for the project to happen, it was up to state governments to introduce it in their jurisdictions.
Queensland Premier Annastasia Palasczcuk’s government voted down a motion supporting such a register, in a move Mr Dutton’s spokeswoman slammed as ‘very frustrating’.
Queensland state Labor MP Scott Stewart rubbished the idea, telling Parliament the Australian Institute of Criminology had found ‘public sex offender registers do not reduce recidivism.’