Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts, representing the Attorney-General. Will the minister please update the House on the Morrison government's strong stance on online safety, including yesterday's announcement to combat online trolls and strengthen defamation laws? Will the minister advise on any industry feedback on our proposed new laws?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Reid, who has a longstanding personal and professional interest in this as a psychologist with very advanced qualifications and of course as a mum. All of us on this side of the House—and, I'd suggest, in the entire chamber—are very concerned about online safety. The Morrison government has been at the forefront of delivering measures designed to give people the protection of the rule of law online, just as they have it offline. We cannot accept a situation in which social media is a place where cowards use the shield of anonymity to bully, harass and ruin lives.

That's why we have now announced the next stage, building on measures that the government has already delivered, like the world's first eSafety Commissioner and legislation to deal with abhorrent violent material online.

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Whitlam on a point of order?

Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, it goes to the operations of the House. When the Prime Minister was answering questions on online trolling before, the member for Bowman—

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Whitlam will resume his seat. You haven't stated a point of order.

An honourable member interjecting—

The Leader of the House on a point of order?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That interjection was clearly disorderly. There was no point of order. It was rant. If there is a question to you, it should be at the end of—

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the House will resume his seat. The minister has the call.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This year we passed the Online Safety Act, which will take effect in January. These are very serious issues, and it's quite disappointing to see the trivialisation we're seeing from the member opposite. We have now announced a bill which will give the victims of defamatory online comments the power to proceed against the person who made the comments, through a complaints scheme, operated by the social media platform, or through a federal court setting the power to issue an end user information disclosure order, requiring the platform to disclose details of the person who posted that comment so that defamation actually can be pursued. Central to what we are setting out is giving the social media platforms a very strong incentive to disclose this information by granting them a conditional defence against being liable in defamation if they have a complaints scheme in place and if they share the information. But, if they don't, they will be held liable as a publisher. So we've been very clear on the principles and we've got a clear mechanism to deal with this problem.

The Australian people are sick of anonymous trolls online conducting themselves with impunity, and we expect the platforms to do something about this. That is why we have now come forward with this detailed and well-thought-through regulatory framework. It's been widely welcomed. For example, the managing director of publishing at Nine Entertainment, James Chessell, said:

Nine welcomes the government's announcement today, which will put responsibility for third-party comments made on social media pages with the person who made the comment, or with the platforms if the platforms cannot identify the person.

This government has delivered a series of effective reforms to make the online environment a safe place in which to operate, and with this very significant announcement over the weekend we are continuing our work in this area.