The Coalition will strongly oppose Labor’s latest Misinformation Bill, which is an attack on free speech.
Last year, the Government released its first Misinformation Bill. The Bill drew more than 20,000 submissions and comments in opposition to it, and was withdrawn in disgrace last November.
With its latest attempt, Labor has again demonstrated that it does not respect the fundamental right of Australians to free speech. This is a Bill which has no place in Australia.
The Bill gives digital platforms an enormous financial incentive to censor statements made by everyday Australians. If the Government decides that they have not censored enough “misinformation”, they can face large fines. Digital platforms don’t care about the free speech of Australians – but they do care about their profits. So they will censor large amounts of material in order to avoid the risk of fines. Digital platforms cannot be fined for censoring too much material - but they can be fined if they do not censor enough material.
The provisions of the Bill are extremely broad and would capture many things said by Australians every day. Under the Bill, the honestly held opinions of Australians can be deemed to be “misinformation”. Digital platforms are required to identify whether or not pieces of content are “misinformation”. The process of identifying this “misinformation” is highly subjective and will lead to the suppression of the free speech of Australians.
Everyday Australians are captured by the Bill, but some groups are excluded from its operation. For instance, any “reasonable dissemination” of material for an academic, scientific, or artistic purpose is excluded from the Bill. But if an everyday Australian disagrees with an academic, that can be “misinformation”. This is outrageous and creates two classes of speech in Australia - one for favoured groups, and one for everybody else.
The Bill gives the Communications Minister the powers to personally order Misinformation Investigations and Misinformation Hearings. This could include Investigations and Hearings into digital platforms which the Minister believes contain too much “misinformation”. This is wide open to abuse and an extraordinary power for a Minister to hold in a democracy. On the other side of the coin, the Minister can choose to exclude a favoured digital platform from the operation of the Misinformation laws entirely.
The Coalition will strongly oppose this dangerous legislation, and will always stand up to protect the free speech of Australians.