David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The farce and outrage that is the Albanese government's misinformation bill continues. Last time we met in this chamber, we knew there were a lot of people who were angry about the bill and we knew that a lot of people had put in submissions, but we didn't know how many. It turns out that the total number of Australians who have put in a submission or made comments on this appalling bill is 23,000—23,000. They've joined people like the New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties, the Queensland Council for Civil Liberties and the Human Rights Commission in condemning the bill. So many different groups have condemned this appalling bill which gives an extraordinary amount of power to ACMA. We know that this is not theoretical, because those opposite constantly referred to misinformation in the context of the Voice referendum, basically meaning things that they did not like.

This is a very dangerous piece of legislation, it is a wrong piece of legislation for Australia, and that is why the condemnation has been so universal. It should be withdrawn, it is an outrageous affront to our democracy and it is shameful that the Albanese government is still persevering with this appalling piece of legislation.