https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/14/asia/australia-child-sex-offender-travel-ban/index.html

And the comments are just the same as Americans’:

https://twitter.com/HumanHeadline/status/940800469630365696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E940800469630365696&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2017%2F12%2F14%2Fasia%2Faustralia-child-sex-offender-travel-ban%2Findex.html

National registry coming to Australia:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6569091/Peter-Dutton-pushes-national-sex-offenders-registry-Australia-paedophiles-live.html

Just read the last line of this article:

https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/korean/en/article/2019/01/09/child-protection-group-rejects-duttons-register-track-child-sex-offenders-stunt

“He said the register active in the US since 1996 hadn’t encouraged vigilantes.”

A bold-faced lie!!!

Anyway, this is all irrelevant to US registered citizens since Australia won’t allow us to visit or move there.

We had to devote a quarter century to building up this registration scheme, in each of the states and at the Federal level, before it became clear what a waste it is. It is far from what we would put in place today, were we to start from scratch and knowing what we know now.

Unfortunately, once it is in place, it takes years to tear down.

I hope that Australia can learn from our mistakes.

I’m Australian, married to a US RSO. I hope and pray that we don’t take the same path as the US in this issue but we have a crazy government in power right now. This will benefit no one.

As a culture, we are very distrustful of any form of government, people in power and people with money. This comes from our roots as convicts, I believe. We have a saying in Australia where we say that “everyone deserves a fair go.”

I’ve never had an issue with my family and friends understanding my husbands circumstances. I just wish everyone here in the US would be as understanding.

“I live in a large suburb. In fact two suburbs share the same postcode. I am sure there are people living in this suburb who have served time for sex crimes. What would I do with information telling me the names of registered sex offenders in my suburb? I don’t see the point. I am not going to move as a result. I am not going to carry around photos of them on the off chance I see them and can point out to my children to steer clear.”

I’ve been asking for years – what is someone supposed to do with the information from the registry that is so different from general safety and security practice? And to follow up, why has no one else asked that question in the 20+ years since the registry went public?