Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts. In November 2020, in this place, and in the year before that, in September 2019, also in this place, I asked the minister what steps he had taken, including those taken in consultation with the Attorney-General and other relevant ministers, to address the issue of online racism in Australia. This was in reference to the terrorist atrocity committed by an Australian citizen in Christchurch and serious warnings about the rise of right-wing extremism, online hate speech and racism in Australia. I asked the minister if he would ensure that Australians, including Australians of Muslim faith, are kept safe online by amending Australia's e-safety laws or by driving the adoption of an EU-style code of conduct for countering illegal hate speech online.

In 2019, the minister responded to my question by saying: 'I make the point that we are committed to introducing a new online safety act.' In 2020, the minister simply failed to answer the question. In late 2020, the minister finally released the exposure draft of the Online Safety Bill 2021 for public consultation. In its submission to the exposure draft, the Online Hate Prevention Institute stated:

Significant online harm also results from hate and incitement to violence that targets segments of the community, as distinct from the cyberbullying of individuals.

This is a significant gap of coverage in this area. The institute continued:

Attributes such as race, religion, mental or physical illness or disability, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, intersex status and others are used to target segments of the community. In the most serious cases online hate against these groups involves incitement not only to hate, but also to violence. Preventing online harms requires action well before it reaches that point.

It also stated:

… a takedown power covering incitement to hate, against both individuals and groups, is urgently needed.

Minister, does the Online Safety Bill now before the parliament address racist hate speech and incitement to violence that targets groups, as distinct from individuals, and, if not, why not?

See this speech in context