Peter Dutton may face a party room revolt if the opposition elects to support the government’s misinformation bill, with a number of conservative colleagues and lobby groups saying they remained strongly opposed to the changes.
Dutton has expressed support for giving the eSafety Commissioner further powers, while the shadow communications minister, David Coleman, has said the Coalition was “open” to considering any changes to the government’s misinformation bill.
But conservative Coalition senators Matt Canavan, Claire Chandler and Alex Antic have all expressed strong criticisms of the proposed reforms, while the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) and Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) have also indicated they will continue to campaign against the bill.
The misinformation bill, released as an exposure draft in 2023, would empower the Australian Communications and Media Authority to require online platforms to address content considered “false, misleading or deceptive, and where the provision of that content on the service is reasonably likely to cause or contribute to serious harm”.
It was met with strong objections, from the ACL, IPA, , One Nation and numerous Coalition politicians, including Coleman, who set up a website, still active, called “Bin The Bill”. The conservative campaign group Advance labelled it a “Ministry of Truth”, a reference to George Orwell’s dystopian 1984.
The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, withdrew the bill in 2023, promising “refinements”, but after misinformation spread online following the Bondi Junction and Wakeley stabbings in Sydney, Rowland indicated the bill would be resurfaced.
Canavan, the Queensland LNP senator, was critical of the government for pointing to the recent stabbings in Sydney as further evidence for its misinformation bill.
“The PM has caused more division by shamelessly tying a violent video to his agenda to outlaw some types of speech. The basic principle is, if you don’t trust politicians, don’t give them the power to tell you what you can say,” he told Guardian Australia.
The IPA’s director of law and policy, John Storey, raised similar concerns. “The federal government is blatantly misleading the public in linking the terrible attacks in Sydney to its proposed misinformation laws, which are designed to do nothing more than censor the opinion of mainstream Australians online,” he claimed.
The government is yet to outline changes to the initial bill it will introduce to parliament. Rowland has said the government is considering refinements including additional protections for freedom of speech, greater transparency, and “improved workability”.
Dutton told the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday the Coalition was “happy to have a look at anything the government puts forward”, but added “we need to get the right balance”.
“We don’t want to impinge on your ability to express a view in a democracy. It’s a key, fundamental element of who we are, that people can express their view, but they need to do it respectfully,” he said.
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The Tasmanian senator Claire Chandler, shadow assistant minister for foreign affairs, who has previously described the bill as a “threat to democracy”, said on Tuesday she stood by those criticisms.
“In a democracy like ours, we should never accept the government of the day having the power to force media of any type to censor views, opinions and debate,” Chandler said.
“What we should expect, as Mr Dutton has said, is that social media companies will act on the appalling child abuse, foreign interference and violent imagery prevalent on their platforms.”
Antic tweeted on Tuesday that he “will not support the Misinformation Bill”, which he considered “monstrous”.
The ACL has previously raised concerns about Acma having power to decide what posts were considered misinformation. On Tuesday, ACL director of policy, Christopher Brohier, said it remained opposed.
“The events of the last week should not make a difference as there is no way of knowing the source of any influence on the young man who is alleged to have stabbed the bishop and there is [no] link known between the Bondi stabbings and the internet,” he said.