STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator BELL (New South Wales—One Nation Whip) (13:20): Labor's relentless march towards a future where they have ever-increasing powers to censor and control your speech continues like a runaway train. What is driving Labor's obsession with silencing their millions of Australian critics? Well, Labor has just suffered a historic loss to One Nation in Secret Harbour.

And, instead of asking why Australians are walking away from them, Labor politicians are reaching for other explanations—bots, trolls, misinformation. Excuses spew from the pages of Labor's talking points. You will hear federal ministers speculate about foreign bot swarms.

We have heard the WA premier talk about a wave of poison when discussing the fact that thousands of Labor voters have abandoned them to support One Nation. But you will not hear the Labor government say: 'We hear your criticisms. We're sorry.

We think we may have got that one wrong.' At the same time, Labor is trying to rush through legislation to give their e-safety commissioner, their chosen censorship tsar, even more power over Australians online—the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026. So I say: Australians beware. Labor is building the machinery of a socialist censorship regime one new power at a time.

As is their way, they will wrap it in moral language, the language of protecting children. Apparently they think, if you say 'think of the children' often enough, no amount of government power is too much. Under this legislation we are fighting to stop, Labor would give their e-safety commissioner the power to compel a person to appear in person and answer our questions, which is ironic because the eSafety Commissioner has currently been asked to appear before US Congress, something which she doesn't want to do and she has chosen not to do, and I believe the Labor government is supporting her choice.

Yet, you want to take away that power from Australian men, women and children, which is deeply ironic. Let's dig into this. If you refuse these new powers which the government is insisting upon, you will be facing serious penalties, including imprisonment.

This is for an internet regulator. We're not talking about terrorism or organised crime. We are talking about Labor's desperation to enforce their social media age ban, which we told them wouldn't work.

Here we are, back again, fixing up a mess that they have created, and the solution is to give them more control over things you can say and things you can do and rules they won't apply to their own chosen censorship tsar! Here's the extraordinary part. While they're saying 'think of the children', it looks like Labor wants these powers to reach children.

There appears to be no blanket exception for minors under their proposal. A teenager who knows how an age check can be bypassed or how a workaround can be operated may be compelled to appear and answer questions. Labor tell us this regime exists to protect children and then give a Commonwealth regulator the power that could be used to summon those same children for questioning, and there's no automatic guarantee that a parent or guardian must be beside them, no automatic guarantee of legal representation.

A 13-year old is not on an equal footing with a Commonwealth regulator simply because legislation says so. If Labor genuinely cared about protecting children, then these safeguards would already have been written into the law. Then, there is the issue of self-incrimination.

Labor believe people should be compelled to answer even when their answer may expose them to complex legal risk. There are limits on how compelled material can later be used, but the facts remain. Labor want more power to force you to do things.

They'll excuse their own e-safety commissioner; she doesn't have to go to the US. She's been compelled, but they won't apply that same standard to our own people. This is becoming a very dangerous pattern.

Because Labor's legislation was flawed and they can't enforce it, they're asking for broader powers. I can tell you it's still not working. They want to compel more documents, more information and more people to appear for questioning.

At what point do we say this is enough? One Nation opposes Labor's relentless socialist censorship regime, because free speech matters and because parents, not Canberra bureaucrats, should make decisions about their children's lives. But this is bigger than just this legislation or these bans.

It's about how much power Australians are prepared to hand to an unelected censorship commissioner, while Labor are calling all criticism bots, poison and misinformation. Let's reflect on that. That is the environment in which this is occurring.

Labor seem to think they can censor themselves into a safe space. Good luck with that. If people cannot have their say in your comments sections, they will happily send that message at the ballot box.

Labor is building its censorship regime—that is the truth—because Australians are saying things to them that they do not like. One Nation will never allow this to occur. Your cynical abuse of people's concerns about child safety ring hollow.

Everyone sees this for what it is: cover for the steady accumulation of government power.