Topics: Thoughts and prayers with Helen Haines, Digital duty of care, YouGov poll
James Morrow: Sarah, thank you so much for joining me. Obviously, the news about your parliamentary colleague Helen Haines is dominating the headlines this week. I know this has been tough for absolutely everybody who works in that building. I just, you know, would love to get a bit of your thoughts about what Helen Haines is like to work with as somebody, obviously an independent, but also just the way people seem to be leaping on this case to use it to push their own hobby horses, while maybe we have more important things to deal with first?
Senator Henderson: Well, James, can I start by saying our thoughts and prayers are with Helen, with her family, her loved ones, and with her staff at this horrendous time. This is a horrific attack. I think not only are we in shock, James, the nation is in shock that any democratically elected representative could walk out of their place of work and then this happen. I mean, what has our country come to, that anyone cannot feel safe at work and we’re just keeping everything crossed that she’s going to pull through.
James Morrow: Yeah, what do you make of some of these reports we’ve heard in the press that you know, for as much as the prime minister has been praising Helen Haines, just a few weeks ago they were shopping around apparently, a dirt sheet on her about you know alleging that she had some improprieties after she went after the prime minister over that $6 million grant to the golf course down the street from one of his properties.
Senator Henderson: Well, the Prime Minister, of course, has used this opportunity to say we need to bring the temperature down, but I think there’s been more division under his prime ministership than we’ve ever seen before in this country. A complete breakdown of social cohesion. We saw what happened during the Voice debate, and now to learn what the prime minister is doing in his office, shopping around this dirt sheet, is terrible. I’ve actually seen and got a copy of it. Helen Haines has done absolutely nothing wrong. I mean, she’s highly respected. Integrity is her mantra and she’s really forged a very significant reputation as someone who takes integrity and transparency very seriously. So, for the Prime Minister’s dirt unit, disgraceful dirt unit to be doing this just tells us a lot about the way this Prime Minister and his team operate.
James Morrow: Yeah, no, I just think it’s hypocritical and grubby and being done with our taxpayer money. Hey, I want to shift gears a little over to the digital duty of care. You are obviously, as I said before, the shadow communications minister. I have spoken a lot about this bill. I think this bill is incredibly dangerous to free speech. I feel like when they say, let’s turn down the temperature, I think they feel like they’re saying only you turn down the temperature. You know, they can keep doing whatever they want. But tell us more about this sock puppet issue, which they keep denying is a problem but you say this is still a really concerning issue.
Senator Henderson: Well, this is not about protecting children. This is not about getting tough on big tech. We have very significant powers currently in the Online Safety Act to prohibit seriously dangerous material, illegal material online, including child sexual abuse material, terrorism material. And one of the things that’s shocking about this proposal, apart from the egregious attack on free speech, James, it proposes to remove all of the mandatory codes and standards which set out in detail what the digital platforms have to do when it comes to detecting and removing this illegal material and age-restricted material like pornography. So that is a shock which, from my perspective, shows that the minister doesn’t know what she is doing.
But in relation to these powers to create fake identities online, to track people anonymously, these are very concerning. Why is the eSafety Commissioner trying to step into the shoes of law enforcement agencies? There is an appropriate place to use these sorts of powers by law enforcement agencies and security agencies to track down paedophile rings and some of the shocking stuff that happens online, but this is not the job of the eSafety Commissioner. And I’m just looking at this – here’s the bill – one of the most appalling pieces of legislation ever to come into our parliament. And the fact that there is basically broad-ranging powers to create these fake accounts with no safeguards, it is extraordinary.
James Morrow: So they could use these sock puppets essentially to push government propaganda?
Senator Henderson: They absolutely could because reading the face of the legislation, there is no restriction on the government spreading misinformation, from spreading government propaganda. There’s a number of ways in which they can do that. And it’s incredibly wide-ranging. In fact, the Commissioner can also use these fake identities, I’m just reading here, to test whether an online service can spread material which would otherwise be illegal, which is just extraordinary. This is not her job. If the eSafety Commissioner is worried about a particular website or online service which is spreading illegal material, refer it to the police, refer it to our law enforcement agencies. The fact that she’s trying to do this herself is just a complete example of shocking government overreach, as I say, with no safeguards.
James Morrow: And anybody who lived through the pandemic and the way the government tried to manipulate the truth online and heavy the social media companies knows this is a big danger.
Hey, before I let you go, News24 YouGov Pulse poll here that suggests that the Coalition and Labor now are on level, pegging 50-50 in the two-party preferred stakes. One Nation still very popular but Coalition, now ahead of them in the two-party preferred. That’s 50-50. That’s quite something here. Are we seeing a bit of a resurgence in the Coalition here as some of these policies roll out and people start to focus on that next election, 18 months away, though, that it might be?
Senator Henderson: Look, I think we certainly are under Angus Taylor’s leadership. We’ve very strongly prosecuted the need to lower taxes, lower migration, cheaper power bills, and we’ve presented a range of policies to show that we have a very strong plan. And that’s in contrast to the way this economy is going off the cliff under Labor. So many things are going wrong. Australians, I think, more and more don’t trust the Prime Minister and Labor.
They can see the systemic lies to which they’ve been subjected, including the shocking lies over taxes in the Budget. These are toxic taxes which we will repeal. But Australians have had enough of the lies. They don’t trust Labor. Labor’s dropped some 10 points in this latest poll and I think, as I’ve pointed out, you can see that with the hard work that we are doing bit by bit to regain the trust of the Australian people to show what we would be as an alternative government. It’s a job we take very seriously and our plan, I think, is really resonating.
James Morrow: Well, we got 18 more months to deal with this and all the taxes and everything else. Thank you so much, Sarah Henderson.
Senator Henderson: Thanks, James.