Senator Matt Canavan clarifies that Misinformation Laws prohibit opinions, not lies

Nationals Senator Matt Canavan has criticized the Labor government’s misinformation bill, claiming that its true purpose is to outlaw opinions.

During his speech at the Conservative Political Conference (CPAC) Australia event on Oct. 5, Canavan warned the public about the risks posed by the legislation.

“Misinformation laws do not protect you from lies. They are there to protect the powerful so they can continue to lie,” he said.

The senator stated that this was reflected in the design of the bill, which defined serious harm as “any harm” that affected Australia’s banking system, the health authorities, and various identity groups, also noting that the defense force was not included.

He argued that the government itself should also be subject to these laws.

“After the past few years, we’ve locked our children out of school. We locked them away from their parents. We arrested young mums for Facebook posts,” Canavan said, pointing to what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“Are we not allowed to question the efficacy of this?”

Under the bill, misinformation is defined as content that is “reasonably verifiable as false, misleading, or deceptive, and is reasonably likely to cause or contribute to serious harm.”

Social Media Censorship

The bill would also grant the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) the power to impose significant fines on social media platforms if they fail to crack down on misinformation.

However, Canavan said what the ACMA would do was make sure that social media companies have “internal ministries of truth” to censor people.

“Almost all of these social media companies are American,” he said.

“I love Americans, but I don’t think Americans should get to decide what we say in this country, and deputize foreigners to silence and control the speech of Australians.”

Canavan also warned that the broad coverage of the bill could allow the Chinese-owned platform TikTok to legally and effectively replicate the censorship regime implemented by the Chinese Communist Party in Australia.

“These laws don’t just silence us. They send away our sovereignty to other countries,” he said.

Defining Misinformation

Canavan’s remarks came just over a week after former Prime Minister Tony Abbott raised concerns that it was very difficult to define misinformation.

He gave the example of the incumbent Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s promise of reducing the power bills by $275 (US$186) per year for each household during the election, which never happened.

“Was that misinformation, an honest mistake, if you like, or was it disinformation—a deliberate untruth?” he asked during an interview with 2GB Radio.

Abbott also cited the frequent changes in the health guidance by the authorities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The claims during the pandemic that masks were essentially useless—was that misinformation? And then what about the claims that masks were essentially necessary, was that misinformation?” he questioned.

“It’s quite astonishing to me that after the pandemic, when we are all becoming acutely aware of ‘facts’ that changed over the course of the pandemic—including the nature of airborne spread, amongst many others—that we would find our parliament debating a Bill where any number of legitimate concerns about public health policy could be branded misinformation by the government or the scientific orthodoxy of the moment,” he said.

Naziya Alvi Rahman contributed to this article.