Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last year, we saw one of the most draconian bills ever presented to this parliament in the form of the MAD bill—that is, the misinformation and disinformation bill. Fortunately, that was roundly defeated. But those in support of new blasphemy laws have not rested. This week, we have seen the extraordinary revelation of international regulators coordinating to suppress free speech around the world. Renowned journalist Michael Shellenberger has revealed leaked documents from a conference at Stanford University. The conference was titled 'Compliance and enforcement in a rapidly evolving landscape'. The stated purpose of the conference was to bring together policymakers, academics and experienced Silicon Valley experts to discuss the state of compliance and enforcement of existing regulations related to online trust and safety. This might all sound very benign, but the attendees have been on the front lines of seeking to suppress speech online.

Our own eSafety Commissioner was the keynote speaker at this event, and she has recently sought to force social media companies to take down video of the violent murder of a young Ukrainian girl in a subway in the United States. Previously, she has sought to take down content globally that she does not like. Fortunately, this latter attempt was defeated in court. But her attempts have caused United States lawmakers to become concerned. On the release of the information about the Stanford conference, Congressman Jim Jordan, the Chair of the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary in the United States wrote to Stanford University asking them to explain the conference. He wrote:

… this roundtable brought together foreign officials who have directly targeted American speech and represent a serious threat to the First Amendment. The keynote speaker at this event was Julie Inman-Grant, the Australian eSafety Commissioner who has explicitly argued that governments have the authority to demand and enforce global takedowns of content.

The US House of Representatives has now asked Stanford for communications between it and foreign agencies about the conference.

It is also about time we look into the activities of the eSafety Commissioner ourselves. It has lost multiple court cases. We can't let rogue agencies escape parliamentary scrutiny, especially when they're threatening the rights of other citizens. (Time expired)