Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the senator for the question. The first point I'd make in relation to the questions about Mr Christensen and Mr Kelly whilst they were parliamentarians is that obviously those actions of government to which the senator is referring were actions of the previous government. That's the first point I'd make. I can assist you as much as I can, but this might be something you might want to have a chat with those on the other side about. But, more broadly, I understand these matters were discussed in Senate estimates in response to questions from Senator Roberts in particular. I'm also advised that the approach the government took then, as the evidence by departments demonstrates, was to refer posts to social media companies for those companies to assess if those posts met the platform's policies.

The senator asked about legal provisions. The advice I have is that this is a referral process from government that was engaged in—and I assume it's still engaged in—but ultimately the legal capacity to take down a post or whatever information is action that's taken by the digital platform itself, and that is ultimately a matter for that platform. If there's anything further I can assist with, I will do so. But I would again reiterate that I appreciate you have a different view, Senator, but the evidence before estimates was that the government and the health department were concerned with disinformation and misinformation, and that will inform the basis of referrals. (Time expired)