A proposed law to give Australia’s media authority more powers and posing a danger of silencing critics of abortion and trans ideology, of great concern to rights group Australian Christian Lobby, has been withdrawn in a dramatic turnaround.
Australian lawmakers initially approved the “Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024” in the House of Representatives by 78 votes to 57 on November 7, as reported by Christian Daily International.
The Bill had been referred to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee for further scrutiny.
In a statement, The Rt Hon Michelle Rowland, Minister for Communications, confirmed the Government would no longer proceed with the bill.
“Based on public statements and engagements with senators, it is clear that there is no pathway to legislate this proposal through the Senate,” Rowland said.
“The Government invites all Parliamentarians to work with us on other proposals to strengthen democratic institutions and keep Australians safe online, while safeguarding values like freedom of expression.
“It is incumbent on democracies to grapple with these challenges in a way that puts the interests of citizens first.”
Rowland said the original bill had intended to “combat seriously harmful content on digital platforms, while maintaining strong protections for freedom of speech.”
She ventured alternatives to dealing with misinformation, to be explored. These include a new law to strengthen offences to target the sharing of “non-consensual and sexually explicit deep fakes," a proposal to enforce truth in political advertising for elections, as well as reforms to regulate artificial intelligence.
“Mis and disinformation is an evolving threat and no single action is a perfect solution, but we must continue to improve safeguards to ensure digital platforms offer better protections for Australians.”
If it had gone ahead, the legislation would have amended the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, and imposed certain “obligations” on digital communication platform providers for distributing digital content deemed “reasonably verifiable as false, misleading or deceptive,” as summarized by the Parliament of Australia on its website, “and is reasonably likely to cause or contribute to serious harm of a specified type.”
The failed bill was also intended to expand the compliance and enforcement powers of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA). It would have enabled the ACMA to receive information from providers as needed, and determine standards for misinformation, with parties falling foul of the proposed law facing financial fines.
After the bill had been initially approved by Australian lawmakers, before it was sent to the Senate committee, the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) lashed out at the legislation, calling it both “Orwellian” and “an unmatched threat to freedom of speech in Australia.”
“The proposed legislation would allow the government of the day to impose their subjective view of ‘truth’ onto public discourse and effectively silence dissenting voices,” said Michelle Pearse, Chief Executive Officer of the ACL, at the time.
Pearse expressed particular worries about the bill silencing the rights of pro-lifers and people opposed to trans ideology.
“The Department’s own Impact Analysis states the Bill would stop the spread of information that might reverse ‘the rights of women and LGBTQI+ people,’ suggesting it may well silence pro-life views and views that oppose trans ideology,” Pearse warned.
She added that limiting freedom of speech in such a way could threaten democracy itself in the country.
ACL had not published a response to the withdrawal of the bill on its website, at the time of publication.
