Subjects: Labor’s appalling Misinformation Bill must be defeated in the Senate, Social Media age limit laws
Kieran Gilbert: Welcome back to the program. Joining me live in the studio is the Shadow Minister for Communications, David Coleman. We’ve been talking a lot about the Government’s Misinformation Bill, that it has a risk of a chilling effect on free speech. It looks like a lot of crossbenchers in the Upper House agree with you on that and that it won’t get through.
David Coleman: Yeah well, look, a lot of those crossbenchers have come out and that’s very positive. But let’s wait and see. The vote is scheduled for next week and the Government has built this up as a signature piece of legislation. The Minister, Michelle Rowland, gave a speech in Brussels about misinformation and her determination to get this done. But I mean, this is an appalling attack on free speech. And that’s why everyone from the Catholic Church to Professor Anne Twomey, to the Anglican Church, to so many other groups, has come out and condemned it. And I think the task for the Government is to explain to all these people why they’re all wrong and the Government’s right.
Kieran Gilbert: It’s across the political spectrum.
David Coleman: It is. Yeah, that’s right, Kieran, because it doesn’t matter whether you’re conservative or left wing or somewhere in between. This will affect you and this will chill contribution to political debate because ultimately ACMA determines what is appropriate to be said and that’s just wrong.
Kieran Gilbert: And the risk here is that the big tech just, they’re not going to get into the nuance of your right to free speech online. They will just get rid of the lot. It’s going to be a risk to their license.
David Coleman: Yeah, totally. I mean, if you’re a big technology company, I mean, how much do you care about free speech in Australia? Not at all. How much do you care about your profits? A lot. So what are you going to do? Make sure you don’t get fined under this Bill. Easiest way to do that? Censor a whole lot of material. It’s pretty obvious. It’s been obvious from day one and it’s a fundamental flaw. And this is why this is one of the worst pieces of legislation ever put forward by the Australian Government.
Kieran Gilbert: But it could well be shelved then, if those numbers are as you look at it today. And I think, basically the entire crossbench has come out against it. The Government could well shelve it, not even have the vote.
David Coleman: Well I guess they could. But again, the Government has said that this is a tremendously positive piece of legislation. We obviously want this to be defeated and if the Government shelves it, then that obviously achieves that goal. We’ll see what happens. It’s not over till it’s over. And the Government may seek to negotiate with the crossbenchers, but it is so important that those crossbenchers hold the line on this Bill.
Kieran Gilbert: We will stay across it because obviously, there’s a fair bit at stake on it. On the social media age limit. Will that be legislated by the end of next week?
David Coleman: Well, look, we certainly want to help get something through Parliament on this before Parliament rises.
Kieran Gilbert: So there is criticism and difference on the other Bill. This one, there is bipartisanship.
David Coleman: Well, Peter Dutton led the national debate on this. I mean, he came out in June and said the age should be 16 and we’ll do it within 100 days of being elected. So he’s led this from the start, and it’s consistent with his whole career of standing up and protecting children, whether it was in the police force or in the home affairs portfolio before that. The bottom line is social media companies have abrogated their responsibility to Australian kids. They couldn’t care less about the mental health of Australian kids. We’re seeing shocking data in terms of mental health, self-harm and other things and we should come together and get this done. We need to review…
Kieran Gilbert: And no exemptions for Tik Tok, for Snapchat, for whatever else.
David Coleman: We’ve been very clear on that as we discussed last week. Very concerned about any exemption for Snapchat or any of those companies. So we’ll review the legislation. But we want to see an outcome on this because Australian families want it. It’s the right thing to do and we need to protect Australian kids.
Kieran Gilbert: Finally, the reaction, what’s it been like from parents and families?
David Coleman: Very positive. I mean, I think any parent with a child between 3 and 16 is worried about this. And I think this literally keeps parents up at night. And you’d like as a parent to be able to deal with it all yourself. But it’s overwhelming because if your ten year old is saying, ‘all my friends are on Snapchat, dad’, it’s very, very difficult for parents in that situation because the child says they’ll be excluded. What this is going to do is completely flip that discussion and say, well, no, you can’t do that, it’s not good for you. And that’s going to help a lot of families.
Kieran Gilbert: Well certainly, yeah, I think it already has. It’s already flipped the discussion in a lot of households, including mine. Thank you, David Coleman. Appreciate it.