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

I thank Senator Pocock for what is a very sensible question. We will participate, like you will have the chance to, in the JSCEM processes. The issue is more complicated with social media. I will make this observation about social media—and there might be people in the parliament that disagree with my assessment of it. A person who looks at a particular social media site for their news is more likely to be a person who agrees with that particular social media point of view that's being projected. One of the problems with modern forms of communication, like social media, is that you're often only getting the news that you want to hear. In a sense, social media is different from, for instance, an advertisement in the middle of the nightly news.

Look at the way in which people form judgements and views. The most significant influence in a decision to change your mind about a particular issue is what you see on the evening television news, and that hasn't really changed very much over the years. You can go down the list of all the ways in which you can communicate. Of course, the one at the bottom, interestingly enough, is Twitter. Twitter is a source of information that makes virtually nobody changing their minds. No-one who is listening to your Twitter feed at the moment, if you've got one—I don't happen to have one—is going to change their mind about anything that they hear on Twitter.

I think there are different considerations, and I'm not pre-empting what JSCEM is going to do. I'm happy if they discuss this issue, because I think it's an important issue. My only point is that the whole purpose of this particular bill is to ensure that we have common treatment between referenda and general elections. That's what this bill does, and we appreciate the support for ensuring that blackout period; but, for any further changes, let's see what JSCEM comes up with. I am not going to pre-empt any decision that they might make.