The ridiculously-titled Special Minister of State, Don Farrell, admits that his authoritarian Albanese Labor government is about controlling us, not serving us.

The 72 year old ex-union official even says, “I think everybody recognises that we have to regulate social media and the internet”.

He also thinks that the Communications Minister, Anika Wells is “fantastic”.

He rambles on, “We are not seeking to deprive people of freedom of speech, there will be plenty of that”.

Does he mean that someone else will be depriving us of that, or there will be plenty of freedom of speech? There's nothing “special” about this Special Minister of State's communications skills.

He blunders on, advising that, “ …. there has to be regulations and there has to be controls”.

Who ever thought that an Australian politician would be arrogant enough to say such things publicly. Australians need to be ‘controlled’ in what they can see and say.

Senator easy-ride-into-parliament-from-the-unions Farrell was responding to Shadow Minister for Communications Sarah Henderson's statement that Labor’s latest go at censorship with ‘Digital Duty of Care’ is a threat to free speech, draconian and a backdoor reintroduction of the failed disinformation and misinformation bill, giving the Albanese government power over any commentary, news, organisation or opinion that it didn't like.

The communications Minister has lots of excuses and ‘safeguards’, to be found here:

'We must regulate the internet: Special Minister of State Don Farrell makes stunning admission about new laws'. Oscar Godsell

Regulation of social media and AI is a no brainier, if harm to children is to be mitigated. Through social media children are being exposed to cohesion, cyber bullying and sexual exploitation as well as other negative developments including violent extremism to eating disorders and misogyny . Evidence of these negative consequences leading to anti-social behaviour, mental disorders and even suicide are well documented.

Platforms are collecting massive amounts of user information for targeted advertising, with no concerns for privacy. Even tech leaders from firms like Anthropic, OpenAI, and Grok have expressed fears that rapidly evolving models in that field could become dangerous if developed without guardrails. Governments should establish frameworks like the AI Safety Institute to monitor and prepare for extreme risks.

The Digital Duty of Care (DDoC) contains these innocuous-looking words: “presents a seriously harmful threat to public safety” in regard to the terrible things that might lurk on the internet and threaten our “safety”. Sounds benign, but it leaves open the opportunity for some minister, anytime in the future, to decide what that “threat” is. It could be anything he or she decides it is. It gives them ‘open-ended’ powers. “Protection’ is easily turned into restriction.

We can only hope that silent majority gets it before the next election.

Taylor says that the Coalition won't support the Bill, but, who are they these days? A party hampered by wets, such as currently Ruston, Bragg, Sharma, Wilson, Leeser, Bell, Price (Melissa), Archer. There could be other sneaks on the backbench who don't show themselves much.

There is also the petulant Hastie, pushing the electors of Canning to kick him out because he is too arrogant and stupid to know that his attacks on Paulind Hanson will only help her.

All of the a above could very well stab Taylor in the back before the next election. And I am not at all confident that there are enough Australians who are 'stunned' by the march of totalitarianism headed by Albanese and the likes of the appalling despot Farrell.

meanwhile Indigenous kids are being abused at a massive rate and getting the usual washing of hands by those paid massive dollars to prevent this. Obvious to anyone that this dei Government wants their complete failure hidden and have useful idiots like ekaren to do their bidding.

Hi runner,

YOU are a great one to bring up child abuse. How many children were and still are abuse by your clergy. I think a lot of the wringing of hands about social media censorship by the extreme right, has more to do with their free access to vulnerable children, than anything to do with protecting children from harm.

Paul

yes Paul the only thing worse than child abusers are those who falsely accuse. You are a typical regressive who ignores abuse in front of you and virtue signals your care. You fit in well with the projectors. Several times you piled in on Pell knowing quite well that he was a political prisoner hated by your mob. Better to shut your mouth than show your hypocrisy. But heh you always dig in deeper with your lying narrative.

If the average Australian is as disinterested as OLO posters are in the fact that the dimwitted and dishonest Anika Wells will be deciding what they can say and see under Labor’s third attempt to close down free speech, they deserve everything coming their way.

Digital Duty of Care is the latest manifestation of the censorship attempt that was in the guise of the Misinformation and Disinformation Bill. It was defeated.

DDC is a comfortable-sounding thing designed to slip past an unsuspecting public. A “Trojan Horse”, as described by Scott Hargreaves of the IPA.

Australian journalist Cheng Lei, recently a political prisoner in Communist China, has compared Albanese's Digital Duty of Care idea with China's internet censorship regime.

The best the dying Coalition can come with in response to this authoritarian, Communist-style Bill is a squeak to withdraw it and ‘redraft’ it, meaning that they too are in favour of some form of online censorship - just a different way of doing it.

The DCC Bill, if passed, would allow the Minister (Anika Wells! ) to “expand the categories of serious ‘harm’”. Whatever she or Commissar Albanese decide is ‘harmful’ (to them), in other words. Another description for Wells has been coined by one journalist as “the minister who can determine new harms”.

And of course, the American Inman Grant will be able to hand out fines of $109.2 million for anything considered to be a breach. She has an “extensive history” of that behaviour already. LGBT. Transgenderism. Voice to Parliament, where “abuse” of aboriginal (descendants) was ‘discovered’ - 2 complaints received! The terrorist stabbing of a clergyman covered up. Even overseas footage has been banned.

The Bill would allow the increasingly authoritarian Albanese government to prevent any sort of speech that they don't like.

Albanese himself is actually proud of this proposed atrocity. He is going to hawk it at the UN General Assembly! And the failed ‘misinformation’ Bill is also back on the table.

Labor doesn’t give a toss about Australia. They only want to be in government to experiment with our country for their socialist ideal. And ‘about half’ of Australians are waking up, and have rejected the likes of Anika Wells’ proposal to give herself the power to “define" and “control” ‘harmful’ content online.

The other half will either wake up when it is too late, or they are already resigned to letting politicians do their thinking for them.

In fact, 42% of the drongo part of the population actually say that a law is needed to make them watch what they say on line as the government dictates them to do, and 10% (the double drongos) don't know.

Wells tells us that she would “act on expert technical advice” from the Safety Commissioner. Julie Iman Grant has no particular expertise” on what is right and wrong. There is no diploma in censorship.

Minister Wells puts the control of freedom of speech in the same category as the control of safety in ‘cars, foods and toys’.

Social media-users will be ‘required’ to use government-recommended feeds instead of what they are now choosing to do of their own free will.

For all those people screeching about Nazis, Fascists etc, look no further than the Albanese extremist government.

In one week 400 Russians were arrested for online comments the government did not like.

In the same week, in Britain, 3,300 Brits were arrested for online comments that the government did not like. (Konstantin Kisin, Russian-British political commentator).

This disgusting move against freedom of speech - a supposed democratic country out-tyrannising an autocracy - is on the cards for Australia if we keep voting the way we have been in the past.

Obvious to anyone with half a brain that truth is the biggest enemy to labor/Greens. They detest the fact that people now know that the mainstream media has been captured by these grubs for decades. Can you really believe the sisterhood and emasculated men who to kill babies in wombs up to 9 months have the capacity to determine right and wrong. Will they like Plibersek ask the rainbow serpent whether a post is allowable or not. No like the paedo covering labor/labor lite crew in UK they will gaol anyone pointing out the obvious.

Sometimes like you ttbn I think we deserve what's coming. One thing for sure and that is the current mob call evil good and good evil. God have mercy on us. Remember when Wells criticised Liberals for having snout in trough. They accuse of evil but have never looked in a mirror except for vanity sake.