Topics: PM’s UN speech, Digital Duty of Care
Peta Credlin: Just on this point, Sarah, I know the government says we need this Digital Duty of Care because we’ve got young people committing suicide, we’ve got child pornography on the internet, we’ve got radical Islamic terrorism on the internet, but we get people put in jail for child online exploitation, and we saw that arrest today in relation to this ISIS-linked individual. Certainly, that’s the police claim. We’ve already got all of these laws, they work. So, why do we need this Digital Duty of Care bill?
Senator Henderson: Well, Peta, good evening. And the short answer is we don’t, because as you say, most of the most serious online harms are already prohibited under the criminal law or regulated under the Online Safety Act. The difference with the digital duty of care is this is a political censorship bill. This is all about shutting down the opponents that Albanese and others do not want to hear from. And he belled the cat today in New York, when he gave a speech talking about ‘let’s take this to the next level, combating misinformation and disinformation and the extreme views on the left and the right’. So make no mistake, this is an egregious attack on free speech, and that’s why it’s been condemned by the US administration.
Peta Credlin: So he’s using the cover of child pornography, child exploitation, all the things we’re against, suicide, idolising, and information to young people to radicalise them online. All of that’s already against the law. So this is a really cheap shot by the government to come at, sort of, our natural sympathies to see the end of all of that, but by basically getting it in before the next election, mind you, to basically shut down legitimate debate on the internet or for people hearing, you know, that the bloke lies, that he isn’t doing what he promised, that the Budget’s in bad shape, that the borders are not controlled. That’s what this is about.
Senator Henderson: It is and as I say, that speech that he gave today, they’ve now removed – that damning, extraordinary section – from the transcript on the prime minister’s media website. So talk about disinformation on the prime minister’s own website!
Peta Credlin: You’re kidding.
Senator Henderson: No, I’ve just checked and that section of the speech where he referenced misinformation and disinformation and the extreme views on the left and the right, that has been removed from his website from that speech. So the Greens have belled the cat on this. They talked about using this, that they should and can shut down the views of their political opponents, the Coalition and One Nation. This is a cover for an egregious attack on free speech. This is the stuff of communist China. This is not the laws of a first-world democratic country and it’s extraordinary what the government is doing, and it’s disgusting that they’re using children, harnessing the protection of children for their insidious agenda.
Peta Credlin: And look, from my understanding of it, Sarah, a reasonable debate about safeguards around AI and how it’s rolled out and its impact on the workforce is very different than a debate about free speech, than this digital censorship, than this misinformation, disinformation. But the prime minister is trying to conflate the two. It looks like that to me. Is that how? Am I reading it right?
Senator Henderson: He certainly is and he’s also conflating this notion of “my feed my way”, where you can, so-called, turn off the algorithm, which of course is not possible. Turning off the personalised algorithm, that’s actually not in this bill. There’s just some rulemaking power. So he’s mixing up different issues. The real story here is that the minister has unfettered powers to decide any category of harm that should be shut down, it is all about shutting down what people can say and see online. It’s all about shutting down the political opponents of Labor. They are desperate. They will do anything, Peta, and this bill is dangerous and must be stopped.
Peta Credlin: When the bloke’s got the worst ever rating of any prime minister in living memory, I can see he’s going to stop at nothing to stay in office. Sarah, thank you.