BREAKING: Australia’s misinformation bill dead in the water
The government would need a miracle to turn this around
In what looks set to be a win for free speech Down Under, critical support from independent senators for the Australian Government’s controversial misinformation bill has collapsed completely.
Independent Senators David Pocock, Fatima Payman and Lidia Thorpe will vote against the misinformation bill.
Image: AAP/Lukas Coch.
The Labor Government needed votes from four out of seven independents to pass the bill, but as of today, every single one of the seven independent senators on the crossbench has declared their opposition to the bill.
Formerly undecided Senator Lidia Thorpe today stated her intention to vote against it, due to concerns that "white-dominated institutions" would regulate what constitutes truth, which would would "further erase, suppress and misrepresent First Nations narratives and activism.”
Senator David Van appears to have been swayed by public and/or peer pressure, changing his stance from for to against the bill. In Parliament today, Senator Van said that “at first glance, the bill seemed to be a reasonable approach to tackle harmful content on platforms,” but that on further examination, “there are such significant defects in the bill that means it should not pass as drafted.”
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