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Revenge-smut law reaches Australian parliament

Turnbull looks like he's backing opposition's amendments

Australia's first national attempt to ban “revenge porn” has landed in federal parliament.

First mooted in September when the opposition Australian Labor Party's Tim Watts and Terri Butler released an exposure draft of the legislation, the bill has now made it into the House of Representatives.

Since the bill wasn't initiated on the government benches, having it appear on the notice-paper indicates the government just-about backs the idea.

The bill is designed to fill in some gaps in current legislation. For example, while it's an offence to use a telecommunications carriage service to “menace or harass” someone, that law applies to direct interpersonal communications rather than when a third party – like a revenge smut website – gets between attacker and victim.

As outlined in the bill's explanatory memorandum, the Telecommunications Act would be expanded to make it an offence to transmit “private sexual material” over a carriage service without consent of the participant or participants.

It also imposes a maximum penalty of three years' in prison for threatening to “transmit, make available, publish, distribute, advertise or promote” such material.

There's also a penalty of up to five years inside for operating revenge smut Websites. ®

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