COMPERE: Australia has set a global benchmark in digital safety through the Online Safety Act 2021 and the establishment of the eSafety Commissioner. 

From your perspective as Minister for Communications, what lessons from Australia’s regulatory approach should be considered internationally?

And in your dual role as Minister for Sport, what challenges have you seen female athletes face?

MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND SPORT ANIKA WELLS: Good evening, excellencies, colleagues.

It is a real pleasure to be joining you here tonight.

I’ll start with the sport element of the question – because that’s where I started as a Minister in the Australian Government.

Sport is a powerful vehicle for driving positive change across the globe. 

The profile and status of women’s sport is rising fast in Australia and around the world, with the Matildas - Australia’s women’s football team - inspiring a cultural change after the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

From playground to podium, the Australian Government is empowering women and girls to thrive at all levels of sport. 

Our $200 million Play Our Way program – the biggest ever investment in grassroots sport by an Australian Government – has helped more than 100,000 women and girls enjoy better facilities at their local sporting clubs.

Behind the scenes, we’re supporting women to become coaches and officials, and to take on leadership roles.

Our National Gender Equity in Sports Governance Policy sets a target for 50% women and gender-diverse representation in sports leadership by 2027.

But as the Minister for Sport and now also the Minister for Communications, I am acutely aware that women and girls in elite sport are too often the victims of online abuse.

2023 research by UN Women found they were the targets of 87% of abuse directed at athletes competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. 

The Australian Government has implemented Empowering Women and Girls in Sport Integrity Program to tackle abuse, bullying, discrimination and sexual misconduct against women and girls in sport, both online and in real world environments.

And I would also like to commend the International Olympic Committee for its ground-breaking online abuse protection service during the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games last year.

But my concern is – if this is happening to elite professional athletes with teams surrounding them to provide guidance and support – what is happening to the young girl in school trying to navigate the online world by herself?

Technology-facilitated gender-based violence, including harassment, abuse, and exploitation is ever evolving.

Australia’s approach to supporting the safety of women and girls online is underpinned by a future-focused legislative framework, with the Online Safety Act at its core. 

The Act supports Australians by providing the eSafety Commissioner, Australia's national independent regulator for online safety, with powers to regulate seriously harmful and illegal content.

Going forward, as the technology advances, so must our laws and regulatory frameworks.

Take artificial intelligence.

For all its positive potential, at the click of a button, AI can be weaponised and used to abused.

And the technology has been developed and disseminated so rapidly that schools, law enforcement and policymakers have been left scrambling to catch up. 

In Australia, digitally altered intimate images of people under 18 have doubled in the past 18 months.

99 per cent of sexually explicit deepfakes are estimated to be of women and girls. 

Four out of five of those reported are young girls. 

That is why the Australian Government is tackling the rise of these so-called “nudify apps.”

This will work alongside other laws already in place prohibiting the distribution of non-consensual, deepfake sexually explicit materials.  

We know that cultural change is a critical part of tackling gender inequality. 

Building on our work introducing a minimum age for social media, the Australian Government will be legislating a Digital Duty of Care.

The Digital Duty of Care will place the onus on digital platforms to proactively keep Australians safe and better prevent online harms.

The Australian Government is committed to continuing to listen, learn and draw on the experiences of women and girls to ensure we remain agile and responsive. 

We will also continue to deepen our engagement with stakeholders at home and abroad, including the United Nations and its agencies, to advance our shared commitment to a safer world for women and girls – both online and offline.

That is a right every woman and every girl deserves.

Thank you.