Misinformation bill killed; gambling ad reform kicked down the road
Television networks and social media giants are breathing a collective sigh of relief this morning, as proposed reforms to gambling advertising and plans to give ASIC tighter controls over online content have been removed from the Albanese government’s 2024 ‘to-do’ list.
The Albanese Government has 76 bills to get through parliament during the final sitting week of the year, and a number have either been removed or delayed. If Albanese calls an early election, it may make this Labor’s final sitting week in government.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland confirmed that the government does not plan to introduced legislation around gambling advertising this week, despite promising to do so before Christmas.
Rowland claims that, 18 months after a total ban on gambling advertising was recommended by an inquiry led by the late Labor MP Peta Murphy, the government needed more time to work through Murphy’s 31 recommendations.
“As we have seen in the past, bad policy design leads to bad outcomes which is why it’s important that we get these reforms right,” a spokesperson for Rowland said.
“The government takes seriously our responsibility to protect Australians, particularly young people, from the harms of online gambling.
“Since coming to government, we have progressed and delivered the most significant online gambling harm reduction initiatives in the last decade.”
Shadow communications minister David Coleman said the government’s unwillingness to act on this issue showed PM Anthony Albanese was “scared of the anti-gambling advocates like Tim Costello. He’s scared of the AFL and NRL. And he’s scare of the media companies”.
Coleman told the AFR: “His craven inaction has a very real consequence. Australians are still being bombarded with gambling advertising during live sport.”
Rowland also announced on Sunday that the government would no longer proceed with its unpopular misinformation bill, which was accused of being a censorship tool, giving the ACMA the ability to police a wide variety of topics disccused on social media platforms, and force the tech giants to take down content deemed in breach of the bill.
The Coalition opposed the Bill, as did Senate cross benchers, while the Greens withdrew their support during the week, with spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young saying the party was “concerned this bill doesn’t actually do what it needs to do when it comes to stopping the deliberate mass distribution of false and harmful information”, arguing it “gives media moguls like Murdoch an exemption and hands over responsibility to tech companies and billionaires like Elon Musk to determine what is true or false under ambiguous definitions”.
RELATED: The misinformation bill – impossible to police and easy to weaponise
“Based on public statements and engagements with Senators, it is clear that there is no pathway to legislate this proposal through the Senate,” Rowland wrote in a statement, saying the government is exploring “other proposals to strengthen democratic institutions and keep Australians safe online, while safeguarding values like freedom of expression”.
These alternative proposals include “strengthen offences targeting the sharing of non-consensual and sexually explicit deep fakes”, enforcement of truth in political advertising for elections, and progressing reforms on AI regulation.
“Mis and disinformation is an evolving threat and no single action is a perfect solution,” Rowland said, “but we must continue to improve safeguards to ensure digital platforms offer better protections for Australians.”
Shadow minister Michaelia Cash said the proposed bill “is not about misinformation and disinformation. This bill is about the Albanese government silencing the Australian people,” while Coleman said the bill is “now in the bin, where it belongs.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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topics
Anthony Albanese
gambling advertising
Michelle Rowland
misinformation bill
Peta Murphy
Sarah Hanson-Young
There are way more important things to focus on right now.
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