Speech - Address to International Justice Mission

Good morning,

Thank you, David, for your kind introduction. 

And to the International Justice Mission for hosting this important event.

Your organisation does critical work with local communities to stop slavery and violence and promote a world in which everyone can be safe and protected.

I acknowledge the Traditional Owners - the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people - and pay respect to Elders past and present. I extend this to First Nations people attending.

I want to thank Breilla and Regan for their willingness to share their powerful stories.

Your experiences show why it is so important that we act to prevent online harms. 

The Online Safety Act contains mechanisms to limit the spread of illegal and restricted content online, including child sexual exploitation material. 

At its core, it largely relies on taking down individual pieces of content after harm has occurred, rather than working to prevent it in the first place. 

And while it enabled us to set clear expectations and require reports against them – through the Basic Online Safety Expectations – services were not required to meet the expectations themselves.

Australia’s existing laws were world leading when they were introduced, and I would like to acknowledge the work done by Paul Fletcher in developing the Online Safety Act. 

Labor was right to support the legislation. 

But we have quickly found its limits. 

Playing whack-a-mole with bad content was not delivering meaningful systems-level change. And it was putting the weight of responsibility on victims. 

This is why, last week, I announced the Albanese Labor Government will be legislating a Digital Duty of Care.

This places a responsibility on digital platforms to proactively keep Australians safe and better prevent online harms.

I want to thank IJM for its tireless advocacy for this important and timely national reform. 

As David has said publicly, a duty of care will demand digital platforms do better to also prevent the sexual exploitation of children on Australian screens. 

David, you describe it as a necessary step to protecting Australian children, and children around the world from exploitation by Australian offenders.

I particularly want to again thank Breilla and Regan. Your stories are exactly why we are taking for this reform.

We are committed to addressing these problems through the duty of care, and I am committed to working with IJM to making this a reality.

Just as governments must always ensure laws are up to date, companies can’t just ‘set and forget’ on their services. 

Companies need to think about what kinds of risks their products can create, and how to address them.

We know there will still be times when horrific incidents happen. 

But it will not be enough for companies to wash their hands of the problem. 

While we work through the detail of the duty of care, the signal it sends is clear: companies must do better to prevent harms from occurring. 

This is why there will be strong penalties for platforms that seriously and systematically breach their duty of care.

The duty of care model is a key recommendation of the independent statutory review of the Online Safety Act undertaken by Ms Delia Rickard PSM.

The Government will continue to work through the comprehensive report, and I will have more to say in due course.

But the direction is clear. 

We need to do more – not just to protect users of these platforms, but all those who might be harmed. 

Again, I want to thank David and IJM for your efforts and advocacy on this important issue. 

Thank you.