Tammy Tyrrell (Tasmania, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I will start by saying I will support Senator Payman's Online Safety Amendment (Broadening Adult Cyber Abuse Protections) Bill 2026, which makes it easier for people to take action on online safety concerns without damaging freedom of speech. We need to take a proper look at our Online Safety Act and make it better reflect the independent review's recommendations. The government has taken great strides in improving online safety over the last few years, like fast-tracking the legislative review of the Online Safety Act, increasing funding to the eSafety Commissioner and committing to a digital duty of care. But we do need to acknowledge that Senator Payman's private senator's bill is fixing a problem that the government has failed to fix.

It's been more than a year since the release of the report of the independent review of the Online Safety Act, providing the government with 67 recommendations on how to keep Australians safe online. That means it has been more than a year since the government was handed an easy-win how-to guide on how to help Australians' safety, yet the government hasn't even provided a formal response, let alone taken any action to improve our Online Safety Act. It has sat on its hands and relied on crossbenchers to follow up and do the work for them. That's what's happening here. Senator Payman is just trying to implement one of the key recommendations from the review. She's now moving a motion to make the point that we need action to protect Australians online.

The government isn't acting fast enough. The one thing we did get from the government off the back of the Online Safety Act review was the commitment to a digital duty of care, but we haven't heard much from Minister Wells since the very brief consultation last year. Where is it up to? When will it be ready? A digital duty of care is really exciting; we need to have it as soon as possible, whilst ensuring we get it right. It would put the onus of protection back on the platforms, not on victims online. It would use Safety by Design to actually fix the problem at the source—to fix the problem at the system level. It would overhaul the system to be a proactive one, rather than just tinkering around the edges with our current whack-a-mole regulatory approach. That's real change, not just political speak.

And hey, yes, we passed stronger hate-speech laws earlier this year, but when are we going to take stronger action on hate speech online by bots? We don't even know when a robot posts or when a human posts. Bot don't need to sleep. They can post 24/7, artificially amplifying hateful and divisive content. That hurts our social cohesion, all without us even knowing what is coming from a human being or what's coming from a robot. That's why we need to make social media platforms label bot accounts. This wouldn't censor content, and it wouldn't silence free speech. It would just let people know who they're really talking to online and who is commenting and posting on their news feeds. It's a simple change that would make a big difference to keeping Australians safe online.

We know that, last Friday, the Attorney-General met with all her state and territory counterparts to discuss how to stop online hate. What was even achieved from that meeting? Where's the announcement? Once again, it's radio silence from the government when it comes to protecting Australians online. For over a year now, you have sat on a report on how to stop online hate, and you know there are easy solutions, like labelling bots on social media, so where's the action? Why are you wasting the time of the attorneys-general? The people want less talking and more action, please.

To the government: I urge you to please be bold. Don't leave it to the crossbench to follow-up and action reports from legislative reviews. Do your jobs and release a government response to the review that you commissioned. Be transparent about where work is up to on the digital duty of care, and, in the first instance, make the platforms label bot accounts online. Give the people the information they need to stay safe online.