CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | Contact
The Liberal and National Party opposition to Australia’s world-first under-16s social media ban is growing, as the Government aims to get the bill passed before the end of the year.
Labor has branded the social media ban for under 16s as a test for Peter Dutton, who has so far not agreed with one piece of legislation that the government has put forward since coming into power.
The Opposition have not even hidden the fact that they believe blocking every bill in Parliament is their only path to victory, as Australian voters grow tired of nothing happening under Albanese.
However, the implementation of age restrictions for social media is not the same as the Indigenous Voice, or Misinformation Bill.
When it came to the referendum, the Coalition was happy to hijack the entire debate to present the Voice to Parliament as an elitist attempt at handing over our country to activists. Labor’s recently dumped misinformation bill was also presented as a form of censorship, rather than a way to make sure that faceless social media commentators did not take advantage of public unrest to fan flames of religious bigotry with false blame and defamatory claims in the wake of mass killings.
But the age limits for social media is something that the Coalition claims to have first supported.
While Dutton and the rest of the Coalition are happy to generate as much division in society as they can by misrepresenting Labor’s policies with bad faith arguments and conspiracy, there isn’t a lot that can be argued when it comes to keep children safe. Especially when the leader of the Opposition is an ex-cop who claims to be dedicated to law and order.
Unfortunately for Dutton, this has not stopped some of his backbench using this bill as an opportunity to highlight their fringe views about an Orwellian conspiray.
Several members of the Coalition have raised concerns about the legislation – with some claiming that ‘we can’t rush’ any efforts to protect children from online predators, eating disorders, and other dangers that exist when minors are given completely unregulated access to every dark corner of the internet.
While Dutton has urged his party to stop being deranged, the Coalition’s ‘Broadchurch’ approach to policy means that his own senators and MPs are now asking him to consider whether laws that keep children safe from the very real and measurable dangers of an all-powerful technology that did not exist 20 years is a form of censorship, or at least a violation of privacy.
