Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Home Ownership) Share this | Hansard source

Australia is a liberal democracy, and, in a liberal democracy, people would expect that there is a reasonable restraint on the state's capacity to interfere with the lives of its citizens. This misinformation and disinformation bill strikes at the heart of that settlement between the people and the government of that state, and I was surprised to hear Senator Ciccone defend this concept of a misinformation and disinformation bill because I think most people have come to the view that this was a very bad idea. I understand that the government is a bit like the dog that caught the car. It doesn't know what it wants to do, so it's found a grab bag of ideas of things to pursue, perhaps half-heartedly. But this misinformation and disinformation bill—I must say, for the record, this is one of the most aggravating and nebulous terms thrown around in the current public debate—is a very bad idea, and there is no way that you could deploy a scheme where a bureaucrat would be asked to determine what is misinformation, what is disinformation, what is truth and what is false.

The reality is that we live in an age where there is a smorgasbord of opportunity for people to make up their own minds because of the disaggregation of the traditional media. It still exists in various forms and is being complemented by people being able to engage in their own form of journalism, citizen journalism perhaps, through various mediums. We have more choice than ever. People can make up their own minds. People can shop around, and there is still the traditional media. We've never licensed newspapers. People have always been able to make up their own minds based on reading what they want to access. So the idea of the government coming in—and some of the provisions in this bill were frankly very spooky and scary—and the minister deciding to commission an inquiry into an idea or into an outlet is crazy stuff.

We all respect Mr Rudd's position in Washington, but some of the things that he was doing when he was a private citizen in pursuing the idea that a certain media outlet was running the world and engaging in these conspiracy theories is just as dangerous as the concept of a minister creating a department or a bureaucrat to decide what is true and what is false. Thank goodness this idea has been junked. Long may that be the case, and we will fight against any return of this bad idea.

Question agreed to.