Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the Prime Minister: a far-right activist group—the organisation to which, incredibly, the husband of the Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism donated—recently platformed abhorrent claims that Angela Merkel's politics did more damage to Germany than Nazis and Adolf Hitler. Shockingly, also in attendance was former prime minister and director of Fox Corporation Tony Abbott and current sitting Liberal senators. ADVANCE astroturfs and spreads misinformation to gain support for a dangerous far-right agenda. Will the government urgently guardrail against this with truth-in-political-advertising laws and ban the use of generative AI and deepfakes in political advertising?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Prime Minister is not really responsible for the first part of the question—the people that you mentioned there—but the end part of the question, just to make sure we're within standing orders, is allowable. I'll guide the Prime Minister that way so he understands his part of these responsibilities.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks very much, Mr Speaker. I thank the member for Warringah for her question. It is certainly the case that some of the so-called political advocacy that we've seen increasingly being used in recent years has caused division, is aimed at distressing people and is aimed at spreading what is a hateful culture.

The example that the member has used compares Angela Merkel, who I think is a highly respected former chancellor of Germany. She is entitled to be treated with respect, and I certainly would do that, notwithstanding the fact that she certainly isn't from my side of politics in terms of the Social Democrats in Germany. But we are seeing a rise of hard-right politics that sometimes needs to be called out. On the matters that the member has raised, I'd be happy to have a discussion with her about whether the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters could give consideration to some of those issues. We do need to always ensure that people have freedom of expression, including freedom of political expression. We also need to make sure, of course, that, on the full range of issues, we ensure that disinformation and things that are simply not right are able to be called out. The Minister for Communications might like to add to that as well.

Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the reasons the Albanese government is committed to implementing a digital duty of care, which we intend to do through the parliament this year, is to address online harms that are affecting Australians. That includes preventing nudify apps and deepfakes generated by AI and also hate online.

We just closed the consultation process for that at the end of last year. We are now working through the consultation responses. We intend to work collaboratively with our parliamentarians to try and get this through the parliament by the end of the year to ensure that the digital duty of care—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Warringah on a point of order.

Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's on relevance. I'm talking about political advertising.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister was directly answering your question. I did hear her mention AI and deepfakes, which you were asking about. She was midsentence regarding that part of the answer. I can appreciate that maybe you want a certain answer, but I've got to make sure she's been directly relevant, and she is being, absolutely, directly relevant.

Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The digital duty of care is designed to change the power balance so that the onus is on big tech to prevent harm from occurring to Australians through their own systems and policies before the harm occurs. Currently, it's like an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. The harm occurs and then someone goes and reports something like misinformation in political advertising. A digital duty of care will put the onus on big tech to be responsible towards Australians from the get-go. (Time expired)