Topics: Digital Duty of Care, Reddit’s High Court challenge on the social media ban, data centres.
Alex Thomas: Let’s speak to Shadow Communications Minister, Sarah Henderson. She joins us live now. Sarah, hello to you. Chris Bowen is convinced, are you?
Senator Henderson: Alex, good morning. Look, we can see the government is in overdrive now on the spin and bluster in relation to Labor’s Digital Duty of Care Bill, which seriously threatens free speech. But alarmingly it also removes all of the mandatory codes and standards which impose very specific prescriptive obligations on digital platforms to do things like detect and remove child sexual abuse material, terrorism material, and other unlawful material. It is incredible that these laws actually make our Online Safety Act weaker and yet the government is continuing to mislead and, frankly, lie to Australians about what’s actually in this bill.
Alarmingly, Alex, the government is even trying to give itself the power to determine that any sort of conduct or material can deem to be seriously harmful to children without any safeguards, without any guardrails at all. So that means, in theory, material that criticises Chris Bowen’s, you know, crazy climate change policies and failing net zero policies could be prohibited. That is how crazy these laws are. That is why they are such a huge threat to free speech and that’s why we are working so hard to say the government must go back to the drawing board.
Alex Thomas: The government insists that’s not the case. It’s not about censorship. It is about protecting Australians from big tech?
Senator Henderson: Well, the government is not telling the truth because when you look at what’s in the bill, there are very wide-ranging powers which allow the government to shut down all sorts of speech, even control every design feature on every online service. So, if you are someone who runs a blog, a social media account, a website, we’re all dragged into that as well. Every small business, even low-risk businesses, so right across the economy, this is impacting on everyone if it was to be passed. But even as the Prime Minister himself said when he was in New York, this is all about shutting down his political opponents. He’s made that very clear. The powers are in the bill and it is an extraordinary piece of legislation which cannot proceed.
Alex Thomas: What do you make of Reddit’s High Court challenge to the government’s social media ban for kids?
Senator Henderson: Well, the government, I think, has really failed to implement the social media ban. It’s been very poorly designed, very rushed and badly implemented.
Alex Thomas: Parents love it.
Senator Henderson: Look a lot of Australians are very happy and do like it but the bottom line is that it’s not working. So we will wait and see what the High Court says. There, of course, is a challenge on the basis that it threatens or does not comply with the implied freedom of political communication, the government has denied that. That’s obviously underway at the moment in terms of the arguments but we will wait and see. But what Australian parents do know is that this social media ban is not working. Too many teenagers are on social media and the government again can be held responsible for this because it rushed these laws. They’re poorly designed and badly implemented.
Alex Thomas: Australia has watched with interest as the political landscape in America has completely changed this week. One of the key issues in those midterm elections for some states was the opposition to data centre growth. We know there’s been a lot of talk here about the same issue. Local opposition to it as well. Do you think we need to rethink how we’re embracing that sector?
Senator Henderson: Well, Alex, I think we need to work very hard as a country to attract this investment. AI presents a lot of opportunities but of course, at the moment there are very few safeguards with what is coming our way, very fast. There has been a lot of controversy about the development of data centres. I was part of a Senate inquiry where a data centre was proposed in Lane Cove in Sydney, 16 metres from someone’s home, with no laws whatsoever in New South Wales, which is a terrible fail for Chris Minns and his government to stop that sort of development. Now, after we shone a light on what was happening, that of course is now not going ahead. But the government must do much more to ensure that the balance is right and that the community interest is protected. And I think on that, certainly of the state and territory governments and also the federal government, they are failing very badly.
Alex Thomas: Okay, Sarah Henderson, many thanks indeed.