A bill aimed at cracking down on misinformation and disinformation on the internet has been pulled by the federal government. The bill failed to gain support in the senate with the greens and coalition against it. The government's proposal to ban or restrict gambling advertising has also been delayed.
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00:00The bill to tackle misinformation and disinformation on social media has been dumped after the
00:07government failed to get the Greens and the Coalition on board.
00:11This bill aimed to give the media watchdog greater powers to force big tech companies
00:16to crack down on misinformation and disinformation on their platforms.
00:21The Greens are against this legislation.
00:23We heard from Green Senator Sarah Hanson-Young on Insiders earlier, outlining why.
00:29Take a listen.
00:30Badly and poorly explained and implemented.
00:33The practical implementation was just not there.
00:36And that's true.
00:37And misinformation and disinformation is a problem right around the world.
00:41It's not just in Australia.
00:42We've seen it unfolding in the US during this election.
00:45But unless you deal with it properly, rather than this kind of half-baked option, which
00:50is what the government had put on the table, trying to be all things to all people.
00:55The Coalition has been firmly against this legislation, arguing that it could be used
01:00to censor arguments.
01:01And we've also heard from constitutional law experts throughout this process, raising questions
01:05about social media companies being allowed to define what is misinformation or what is
01:10disinformation.
01:11Earlier, we heard from the Shadow Communications Minister, David Coleman, who said that this
01:16legislation impacted free speech.
01:18The Coalition celebrating that the government has decided to dump it.
01:22Take a listen.
01:23Pretty much everyone who read this bill said, what on earth is going on?
01:29This is not a dystopian novel.
01:32This is the great democracy of Australia.
01:35And yet our Prime Minister, Mr Albanese, wanted to impose this shocking misinformation bill
01:42on our country.
01:43Now, Mr Albanese must rule out bringing forward any version of this misinformation bill, either
01:51before the election or after the election.
01:55And Steph, how has the government responded?
01:57Well, we heard from government frontbencher Murray Watt, who accused the Coalition and
02:02the Greens of teaming up to block legislation that will help change the lives of everyday
02:07Australians.
02:08Let's take a listen to Murray Watt earlier.
02:11It's very disappointing that, again, we see that teaming up between Peter Dutton and the
02:16Greens to block legislation that Labor is attempting to pass and that the community
02:20support.
02:21Like with every other measure we try to do, we see Peter Dutton and the Greens team up
02:26to block what Labor is doing, taking a reckless step to undermine our attempts to look after
02:31Australians and help them with the biggest challenges that we're facing.
02:34Now, in another blow to the government's legislative agenda, it's not going to go ahead with legislation
02:40to overhaul gambling advertising rules this year.
02:46Murray Watt said that basically the legislation was difficult and complex and couldn't be
02:51finalised this week.
02:53Labor had landed on a plan to restrict gambling advertising up until 10pm and ban it altogether
02:59in children's programming, but that had received some frustration and there was agitation from
03:05some Labor MPs who wanted a total ban on gambling advertising.
03:10So the government says that that legislation isn't going to be put forward this week.
03:13It maintains that it will still address it in this term of government, but noting that
03:18an election could be called early next year, that would mean parliament doesn't return.
03:23So this basically puts the question of the future of this legislation into question.