Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] If you are one of the millions of Australians yesterday who received a spam text from the United Australia Party, from Clive Palmer, you're not alone. I got one yesterday too. It's bloody annoying. I wanted to raise this issue today in the Senate because, while it's not surprising that Australia's billionaire buffoon is again carpet-bombing this country with his millions of dollars to try to influence an election, what is critical about this is that, unfortunately, the Spam Act in Australia doesn't safeguard against false information if the message is authorised by a registered political party. This is a great challenge for us going into a federal election.

I listened to the message yesterday from Mr Craig Kelly in the other place, and I have grave concerns about the kind of information that Mr Kelly, Clive Palmer and the United Australia Party are peddling going into this next federal election and about our ability to hold them to account for misinformation—and potentially dangerous information—around COVID.

This is the time of the great lie—for anyone who saw the ABC's series last night about Fox News. We've seen Sky News in Australia banned from YouTube for spreading misinformation. This is an important time for Australians to get the facts.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order, Senator Whish-Wilson. It being 2 pm, we'll move to questions.