Not for much longer.
Grace Tame at the National Press Club in 2021.Alex Ellinghausen
Under,paedophiles are able to hide assets in superannuation and declare bankruptcy to avoid compensating their victims.
The responsibility thus falls on taxpayers. Wealthy recidivists can also use these loopholes to appear cash poor before going to prison,where they typically serve short terms anyway. Upon release,they can return to their previous lifestyles that afford them the protections to reoffend.
Earlier this year,The Grace Tame Foundation teamed up with The Carly Foundation,Fighters Against Child Abuse Australia,and Andrew Carpenter of Webster Lawyers to create a federal law reform campaign called,aimed at closing these two legal loopholes.
Not only would these changes mean greater justice for survivors,they would act as a potential deterrent for repeat and potential future offenders,while also relieving taxpayers.
In June,our coalition took the proposal to Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones,and last Friday the minister announced changes to the Bankruptcy Act and Superannuation Legislation will be implemented within the first six months of 2023.
While this is a huge win,it reminds us that child sexual abuse isn’t just a physical crime,and can persist long after the contact offending stops.
It is systemic and often perpetrated by well-resourced,highly intelligent networking offenders who are masters of psychological torture. The purview of these reforms gives us particular insight into the scope of their power. The bankruptcy and superannuation loopholes are just two examples of “systems abuse” paedophiles engage to prolong their victims’ trauma,in some cases for decades after their original offences.
Child sexual abuse is anecosystem of crime. Individual survivors may experience grooming,stalking,systems abuses,intimidation,menacing and/or harassment on and/or offline.
Last December,convicted paedophile and disgraced businessman,known as ZAB,who he abused over six years in the 1980s.
Millwood has since declared himself bankrupt and divested assets to avoid paying. The court heard that Millwood would write unpleasant comments about ZAB on social media and in the local newspaper alleging that ZAB was mentally ill and delusional.
,but this didn’t stop him. He wrote letters from prison claiming to be the victim of a conspiracy and continued to spread salacious gossip about ZAB,such that total strangers began sharing twisted narratives online. ZAB’s drawn-out story is not uncommon. Millwood’s insidious,incessant mind games are straight out of the paedophile playbook.
Narrative is king in the child sexual abuse ecosystem;from conversational coercion beforehand,demeaning remarks during,to online trolling afterwards. Words are a key component of grooming. Paedophiles sow doubt and division through disinformation.
to let Brett Finch serve his two-year sentence for transmitting child abuse material in the community after calling a paedophile chat line seven times to describe fantasies of abusing boys aged 12–17 in graphic detail shows just how little we value words and their consequences. It shows just how little we value children.
Allegedly,Finch used the service to try to score cocaine,despite not mentioning cocaine on any of the calls. Allegedly,he stopped using the service when a convicted paedophile offered him a chance to abuse a boy. That’s the proof point that Finch’s words weren’t just “shit talk”. They legitimised child sexual abuse. That’s a vital cog in the ecosystem.
Certain elements of the mainstream media form part of the ecosystem. They frequently engage in victim-blaming and perpetrator apologia.
On December 5,,the twice-convicted paedophile who abused me,faced court on three separate charges of using a carriage service to menace,harass or cause offence (speaking of drawn-out stories,it’s been nearly 13 years now).
That same day a tabloid outlet wrote up his LinkedIn job plea. It opens with a brief summary of his offences,followed by his recent activities,future aspirations and qualifications. Complete with a headshot,a screenshot of his profile page,and quotes from him about how he is “casually browsing” for work,it noted in detail his skills in various fields.
You can’t make this up. That’s not even indiscreet platforming. When will it land that child sex offenders are in a different moral universe? That giving them air time legitimises them? When would you ever see the same piece about an abuse survivor? The answer is:never.
The message to the community:terrorise your child victims,but we will still elevate you,regardless. While I can personally laugh him off,pieces like this also risk re-traumatising survivors who might interpret it to mean that perpetrators are indestructible.
From laws and policies,to digital,print,social media and beyond,there are several instruments that can be used to prolong the trauma of child sexual abuse victims,either by perpetrators themselves,their supporters,or anyone who unknowingly reinforces the paedophile doctrine.
There is no single solution to combating child sexual abuse;it requires a suite of solutions. Offenders have strength in numbers. They are creatures of the shadows. Of the dark web. They network. So too must we,as a community,across all divides,in order to form a lattice they can’t get through.
Preventing convicted paedophiles from hiding assets in superannuation and declaring bankruptcy are laudable victories which close two gaps. They shrink the ecosystem of child sexual abuse,but we still have a long way to go.
Grace Tame is a best-selling author,CEO of the Grace Tame Foundation and the 2021 Australian of the Year.
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