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

I thank Senator Pocock for his engagement over this period, which we very much appreciate, but the government will not be supporting this particular amendment. While we do appreciate that the world has changed since that first broadcasting ban was introduced, and social media is a feature of modern-day communication, the objective of all of these changes to the referendum act is to try to ensure that Australian people have the same experience in this upcoming referendum as they would in a general election. Why is that necessary? The last referendum was more than 22 years ago. We've made a whole series of changes to the electoral act. We need to make sure that those experiences are now the same. Like it or not, there is currently no ban on social media in a federal election. There is a ban on other forms of media. All we're trying to do is link the normal processes that would apply in a federal election and make sure that they apply to a referendum.

I welcome discussion, in the JSCEM report, of the matters that you raise. There are a whole lot of changes that the government intends to make to the way in which we conduct federal elections in this country, but this is not the time to move this particular amendment. The time to deal with that issue will be when JSCEM is considering how we need to update our electoral laws. There will be plenty of time to deal with that in the weeks and months ahead, and I welcome your contribution to those processes.