Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

In speaking to this inquiry that is being established I note that the safety of all Australians is paramount. Online safety has been an area of strong bipartisanship, and it should continue to be so. That has been acknowledged by both Labor and the government. Labor stands ready to examine whatever this government puts forward or proposes in this space and to work constructively through any issues that may arise. Labor supports the establishment of a Select Committee on Social Media and Online Safety to inquire into online harms, including harmful content. Indeed, over a decade ago, in 2010, it was a Labor government that established the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety as part of its commitment to investigate and improve cybersafety measures, releasing a report with 32 recommendations, each of which was endorsed and responded to by the then Labor government.

I want to say a few words in the context of evolving harms because Australia has long been at the forefront of online regulation, starting with the Australian Broadcasting Authority back in 1999, followed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, which had responsibility for online safety well prior to the establishment of the Office of the eSafety Commissioner. For over two decades there has been a constant evolution in everything online, from services and technology to user behaviour and case law, and, of course, in terms of regulation. The scale and pace of change will only continue, but the principle of protecting people from harm remains, whether it's spam, scams, defamation, privacy breaches or exposure to inappropriate content.

When it comes to keeping children, young people and adults safe online against a constantly evolving threat matrix, we need both big tech and governments to do better, to be ever-vigilant in understanding, anticipating and addressing online harms. It is therefore essential to have robust evidence about online harms, and it's imperative that big tech not be conflicted in its research efforts in understanding those online harms on their own platforms. It's important that both digital platforms and governments undertake research to understand the evolving online harms and what can be done in a very practical way to keep citizens and consumers safe online. But this research must not be misused. Governments need to fix the yawning information asymmetry on how platforms and the algorithms that drive them are used and abused. Whether this inquiry will fix this asymmetry remains to be seen. However, given it is a short inquiry that will run over the summer period and report in just over two months, in early February next year, we will soon find out.

As I said, it is the role of government to keep on top of issues in social media in order to keep Australians safe online, particularly children. The online environment is fast moving, so we do need to be ever-vigilant, as I said, but governments need to move swiftly as well. It is most unfortunate, therefore—and it is a fact—that the Morrison government has run late on everything from legislating a new online safety act, to reforming online privacy law, to improving digital media literacy and now to initiating this inquiry into online harms in the last sitting days of this year. It is late, late, late. To clarify, this Prime Minister is never late with the media announcements. The announcements come early, and there are many. But the actual delivery is always late or missing.

Labor was so disappointed, as were so many people in our community, that it took the Morrison government so long to introduce legislation for a new Online Safety Act in 2021, which will commence a good three years after the Briggs review recommended it back in October 2018. From the start of the 46th Parliament, and for a couple of years, the minister for communications repeatedly spruiked his then non-existent Online Safety Act in response to any and all concerns about online harms—everything from online hate speech and racism in Australia following the Christchurch terrorist atrocity, to a self-harm video circulating on social media. Labor was disappointed that the minister was slow to release the exposure draft of legislation for consultation, only to then rush the introduction of the bill into parliament just eight business days after the consultation on the exposure draft had concluded. Labor is also disappointed that the Online Safety Act, now legislated, does not appear to address some of the things the minister had previously indicated it would actually address.

Turning to privacy reform, it's disappointing that this government is running so late in the area of privacy law reform and the introduction of a new online privacy code for digital platforms, which was recommended by the ACCC back in 2019. Long before any Facebook whistleblower warned of conflicts of interest in big tech, the ACCC had undertaken an inquiry and had recommended action, action we are yet to see delivered by this government. In terms of digital media literacy, at Senate estimates earlier this year, the department admitted it had completely dropped the ball on digital media literacy. This was another important piece of work that the ACCC recommended in its final report on the digital platforms in June 2019 after its 18-month inquiry. Yet this government completely dropped the ball on it.

The new Online Safety Act commences early next year, and the government is lining up a $4.4 million ad campaign before the election to tell Australians that it's keeping them safe. Australians should know what their governments are doing. They should be educated in this area. But, clearly, if the inquiry terms of reference—and they are substantial—are anything to go by, there is still a lot more to do.

While the ACCC digital platforms inquiry was comprehensive—it ran for 18 months and was led by a team of experts with powerful information-gathering powers—this inquiry will run for just over two months. This inquiry comes off the back of some related inquiries that Labor has of course supported. We supported the recommendations of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiry into age verification for online wagering and online pornography, which reported in February last year. We also supported the inquiry into family, domestic and sexual violence, which reported in March this year. And in June this year, Labor supported, as I said, the passage of the Online Safety Bill with amendments to strengthen transparency and oversight.

Labor also supports this latest inquiry but, as I said, it does come late in terms of this parliament, very late in the day for this eight-year Liberal-National government. As a result, many Australians will now have to take time out of this period to participate in this process. Of course their participation is welcome, but it would not be a good thing if, because this occurs over the Christmas period, some people will not be able to participate.

For three budgets in a row, since 2019, I have asked the minister for communications what he is doing to address racist hate speech online, and for three years running the minister has dodged the question. In 2019 he made a general reference to the work that was being done on the Online Safety Act. In 2020 he just failed to answer it. In 2021 he failed to answer it again, on at least two occasions. Australians have a right to know what steps this government has taken to address the issue of online racism in Australia. What is being done in order to ensure that Australians are being kept safe online in this very important area? How does the Online Safety Act address racist hate speech and incitement to violence that targets groups, as distinct from individuals? If it doesn't do that, why not?

The last thing I will say is that this is a broad-ranging set of terms of reference. There is something that I want this parliament to know and I think many parents out there want to know as well. I supervise my children in their use of the internet. But what bothers me deeply is when I have my nine-year-old and four-year-old say to me: 'Mummy, you go out and tell people to get vaccinated. Why are the people in these ads telling us not to?' Nothing is being done to address the disinformation that is harmful during a pandemic. (Time expired)

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