Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I agree with Senator Pocock; it is a big part of it, although some people say it's a declining part of it. You can see what's happening to some of the social media organisations around the world and you might conclude that there is a bit of a decline there.

The message I am trying to give the Senate is a simple one: we want the experience that Australians get at this up-and-coming referendum to be as close as possible to the experience they would have in a general election. So what we are trying to do is marry the two sets of provisions so that that can occur. It has been more than 22 years since we have had a referendum. The Electoral Act has been updated. For instance, Senator Paterson was talking about foreign interference. We didn't have that as an issue when we had the republic referendum. It's been raised as an issue since. There has been legislation. We have legislated it in respect of a general election. We are now legislating to make sure that the same provisions apply to a referendum.

I am happy to have the discussion about whether the blackouts should be extended to social media. I am not saying that we should reject that out of hand. But we have a process that deals particularly with general elections. There is a whole range of issues, including many raised in the amendments that the Greens are proposing, like ceilings on disclosure and real-time disclosure. All of these issues will be subject to a JSCEM inquiry. Let's not pre-empt that JSCEM inquiry. There will be significant issues if you extend the ban. I think the appropriate course of action is to let that JSCEM process happen. Let's have a look at what comes out of that and make some evaluations after that. I welcome your participation in that discussion.