Sex offenders will be listed under three different tiers on the website, with Purdie saying all three tiers would be published on Wednesday.
Tier one will include sex offenders who have gone underground and do not comply with their reporting obligations. Information will include a photograph, date of birth, physical description, name and known aliases.
The new register is part of Daniel’s Law, named after Daniel Morcombe, who was abducted and murdered in 2003.Credit:
Tier two is for repeat or highly dangerous sex offenders and Queenslanders will be able to make a request to be given the photograph of an offender living in their postcode and adjoining postcodes.
Under tier three, parents and guardians will be able to make a request to check whether a specific person, who has regular unsupervised contact with their child, is a registered sex offender.
Purdie said a demonstration of the register last week was successful.
“It’s on track to go live [on December 31]. We’ve always announced that it would go live before the end of the year and the clock’s ticking, and it’ll go live,” he said.
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Additional staff, including police detectives, will be on hand over the new-year period to help process requests and any inquiries when the website is live.
“We don’t really know what sort of volume it’ll be,” Purdie said, speaking about the potential influx of visitors to the website.
“Obviously every parent, as I am – not only a parent but also a former child abuse detective – it’s information that we believe people should be armed with, and we encourage them to get on and have a look and put protective strategies in place to protect their young people.”
The introduction of the register has not been without controversy, with concerns raised about vigilantism.
Queensland Council for Civil Liberties president Michael Cope said the new law could do more harm than good, as offenders’ names are often concealed to protect their victims.
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