Senator Ralph Babet will today call on the Senate to launch an inquiry into the sweeping powers exercised by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner.
In a motion to be moved in the Senate, Senator Babet will seek to refer the Internet Search Engine Services Online Safety Code to the Environment and Communications References Committee for inquiry and report.
The code which will soon come into effect will require all account holders of search engines, such as Google and Bing, to submit to age assurance measures. This could include providing government issued ID, biometric facial scans or other invasive forms of identification.
“If my motion is successful, the eSafety Commissioner and big tech companies will be required to front up and give evidence. They will be held to account,” Senator Babet said.
Senator Babet is sounding the alarm on what he describes as a dangerous concentration of authority in the hands of an unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy.
“No one voted for the eSafety Commissioner, yet she wields extraordinary control over what Australians can see, say, and hear online, without any meaningful Parliamentary oversight.
“Free speech is not a ‘safety risk’, it’s a democratic right. And I will not stand by while those rights are trampled.”
Senator Babet has accused the Albanese Labor Government of standing by and allowing the expansion of a digital surveillance state dressed up as child protection.
“Bureaucrats shouldn’t be making the rules without being answerable to Parliament. But that’s exactly what this Labor Government is allowing.
“We are seeing similar laws being used in the UK to curtail public access to information online as well as freedom of the press.
“This inquiry is about protecting Australians from digital overreach, invasion of their privacy and loss of their civil liberties. It’s time to put a stop to unaccountable censorship and restore proper checks and balances,” Senator Babet said.
