Topics: Digital duty of care, travel rorts, credit card ban, small business
Craig Moore: Shadow Minister for Communications, Senator Sarah Henderson, joins us on the program this morning. Good morning to you, Senator.
Senator Henderson: Very good morning to you, Craig. Great to join you.
Craig Moore: Thank you. Lovely to chat with you as well. I know there’s a couple of little points of order, for want of a better term. You want to chat in the terms of federal politics this morning, one is about digital duty of care?
Senator Henderson: Yes, well, look, we are obviously very deeply concerned about Labor’s proposed digital duty of care, which, frankly, Craig, is a blank cheque for political censorship. This is a very flawed bill, it must be scrapped. The government is desperate to shut down its political opponents, and that’s what this is all about. Would you believe the minister has put into the bill unfettered powers to prohibit any category of online harm? And while she’s now indicated in a significant backdown that that would be removed, there are many other deeply flawed aspects to this bill, including the powers to create fake sock puppet accounts to track people anonymously online with no guardrails.
And the other shock about this bill is there was an enormous amount of work that went into some 17 mandatory codes and standards governing all sorts of obligations on the digital platforms and other online services, at doing things like detecting and removing child sexual abuse material, terrorism material, violent material. Now, all of those codes and standards which impose these very clear and prescriptive obligations on digital platforms are being gutted out of the Online Safety Act. That is a huge shock because that puts Australians at risk. So what this minister is doing with this bill is making online safety more of an issue for Australians. It’s less safe than it is currently because of the government’s proposals, and that’s why this bill has got to go.
Craig Moore: Wow. Okay, nine minutes past eight is the time. Senator, every so often, we read, and we see, and we hear in the news about members of parliament. Those are on the house on the hill, and sometimes we call it the taxpayers’ dime being used for travel expenses? Anika Wells falling into that category?
Senator Henderson: Well, again, we’ve seen revelations over the weekend that, of course, she justified charging taxpayers nearly $4,000 in business class return airfares when she went to Adelaide for a weekend last year. Now she attended a good friend’s birthday party on the Saturday night, and she justified staying over and charging the taxpayer because she said that the good friend’s husband, who happens to be a Labor South Australian Minister, Chris Picton, she had a meeting with him, an official sideline meeting with him at the birthday party on a Saturday night.
I mean, this defies any sort of credibility. And now these revelations in FOI documents that we’ve uncovered show no such meeting was ever in Mr Picton’s diary, so this just adds to the evidence that this trip was nothing more than a rort. Anika Wells has already rorted more than $10,000 of taxpayers’ money. She’s had to pay that money back, and really, it’s got to the point where the prime minister must act. It is clear that this minister, Anika Wells, has breached the ministerial standards, the prime minister must stand up, show some principle, show some courage and backbone, and say enough is enough. Anika Wells must go.
Craig Moore: Senator, when I worked in a previous life as a Commonwealth public servant and I travelled officially, my requirement, my duty of care, would be the best fare of the day at a time that was suitable to travel, accommodation and the like. I could not go business class. I could not use frequent flyer points to upgrade because everything would be monitored and tracked, and you had to, you know, correctly on the end of your return journey, declare hand on heart, hey, I did all the right things because if I didn’t, I could face a sanction as a public servant, and yet here we have others who just, ah no, it’s alright, we’ll just do as we wish.
Senator Henderson: Well, that’s right, and I think Anika Wells has failed the test of credibility when it comes to her travel. I first uncovered the obscene cost of her return airfares to New York, so she spent around $100,000 to fly herself and two staff to New York, and that led to a full investigation into her travel entitlements. When she was forced to repay more than $10,000, but this is just a bridge too far. I mean, there is no credibility attached to her claim that she had a meeting, an official meeting, at a birthday party with a South Australian minister who happens to be the husband of her close friend who is having the birthday party? I mean, this is an insult to taxpayers. This has gone on and on and on. She has misled IPEA, the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, and it is time that this Prime Minister, as I say, showed some backbone and said, Anika, your time is done. You have failed the test, your obligations to taxpayers, to Australians, and you need to stand down.
Craig Moore: Shadow Minister for Communications, Senator Sarah Henderson, is our guest on 2CC Breakfast this morning at thirteen minutes past eight. No shortage of chats, Senator, about credit card surcharges of late?
Senator Henderson: No, well, I think Australians are just becoming increasingly angry with this government, which is delivering higher taxes, higher power bills, and of course this botched credit card ban. And Craig, what this shows is that Labor is determined to break small business. It should be backing small business, not breaking small business, and of course we’ve seen Labor’s decision to delay its ATO credit card ban. But that’s another humiliating backdown. We have called for this policy to be scrapped altogether. It is outrageous that small businesses cannot put on the credit card their payments to the ATO, and you know this is an incredibly important part of the flexibility that small businesses need.
Labor, of course, has declared war on small and family businesses with Jim Chalmers’ disgraceful proposed trust tax changes, which could cost Australian businesses up to $13.3 billion just in restructuring and advice costs alone. So I mean, this is a car crash of a government which is letting down Australians. Whether it’s wage increases, which of course are not keeping pace with inflation because inflation is going through the roof, interest rates are going through the roof, this is a prime minister who’s destroying our economy, delivering a housing crisis, turning his back on our veterans, betraying older Australians on their private health insurance rebate, and of course, selling out small businesses and families with Labor’s toxic taxes. Australians have had enough, Craig. Australians are angry, and that’s why we are working so hard to get rid of this terrible government.
Craig Moore: Senator, you use the term trust trap, and I think that’s two words that seems to sum up very nicely the situation between the ATO and the Labor government. It’s almost like you know a twin hit with these businesses. Now, as you’ve said, being forced to pay quite heavily?
Senator Henderson: Well, that’s right. So the prime minister is pretending that banning credit card surcharges will make payment costs disappear, but it won’t because businesses are still paying these processing fees, either being forced to absorb those costs or increase their prices, and so Labor is just simply hiding these costs, not reducing them. It’s a con. The Prime Minister has again conned Australians, and so this is just another example of how this government is sending our economy off the cliff. Small family and medium businesses are the heart and soul of Australia’s economy. But this government could not care less. It could not care less about the fact that the economy is imploding. More Australians are losing trust, trust in this government, and as I say, that is why we are working so hard to get rid of this terrible government, the worst government, I think, Craig, in living memory.
Craig Moore: Senator, good to have you on the program. Grateful for your time. Enjoy your Tuesday.
Senator Henderson: Lovely to talk to you. Thank you so much, Craig.