Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Birmingham said chaos and confusion. This government is trying to get through 76 bills this week. They list the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024 as their first item on the agenda, and then they have to do a backflip and pull it. But I think, Senator Birmingham, the one word that was missing from the chaos and confusion was the cost—the cost that this bill would have had to the Australian people had the government secured the numbers to put it through. Let's face it—misinformation and disinformation? You've got to be kidding me. This bill was nothing more and nothing less than Mr Albanese and the Australian Labor Party—shame on them—seeking to censor free speech of the Australian people in this nation.

This bill has no friends. When the Australian Human Rights Commission is siding on the side of the coalition and calling out this government for censoring free speech, Australians need to wake up. Let's look at what leading constitutional lawyer Professor Anne Twomey told the Senate inquiry. Again, if you don't want to believe what the coalition and most other Australians are saying, let's listen to what a leading constitutional expert is saying. She said the government's bill, if passed, would 'create worse problems through large-scale censorship of contested views and the undermining of democracy in the name of cleansing it of misinformation'.

I have to say, colleagues, I've been in this place for 16 years. Senator Birmingham has been here longer than me, at 17 years, and, if you ever said to me as a member of the Australian parliament that a government would seek to bring in a bill that seeks to censor the Australian people from having an opinion and that seeks to effectively gag them from having free speech, I would have said to you that you've got to be kidding.

But I'm glad this government's done this. I actually am, because, in a few months time, the Australian people will have to make a decision.

The decision is going to be for a government—and all commentators are now saying Australia's heading to minority—that's in minority with the Australian Greens. Let's be very clear. The Australian Greens have withdrawn support for this bill and are not providing support for it not because they believe in free speech but because, worse, they think the bill doesn't go far enough. You can be guaranteed that, after the next election, if the Australian people vote for this government with the Australian Greens, you will be silenced. Why do I say that? You have a bill currently on the Notice Paper that seeks to silence you.

This is possibly, as Professor Anne Twomey has said, 'large-scale censorship of contested views' and, worse, 'the undermining of democracy in the name of cleansing it from misinformation.' You read about this, quite frankly, in the books of history. I don't know too many Western democracies that have sought to cleanse their community from misinformation. If the Australian people don't think this is serious, be very, very careful. The people who will be judging whether what you say is indeed true are going to be a bunch of bureaucrats. Nobody gets to judge whether or not what you say is true. Free speech is something that we all hold dear. It is the fundamental principle—that you have the right to say what you believe and that I contest that right with my ideas if I don't agree with it. For a government to come into this place and to seek to censor the Australian people, to seek to censor their right to free speech, shame on them. I would encourage all Australians to have their say at the ballot box.