One of Australia’s most high-profile doctors has urged Australians to actively oppose the Albanese government’s proposed misinformation laws saying they would have been potentially harmful during the Covid pandemic.
Dr Nick Coatsworth, who was the nation’s deputy chief medical officer during the pandemic period, feared the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill would be ‘weaponised’ to shut down debate.
He noted the legislation was in part aimed at stopping the spread of ‘misinformation’ that caused ‘harm to public health in Australia, including to the efficacy of preventative health measures’.
However, he said this was ‘astonishing’ after the Covid pandemic because the medical fraternity and general public became ‘acutely aware’ the ‘facts’ changed as the virus became better understood.
This means the new laws could brand ‘legitimate concerns’ about about public health policy as ‘misinformation’, according to the government of ‘scientific orthodoxy of the moment’.
‘Misinformation causes harm,’ Dr Coatsworth said. This bill should be rejected in its entirety.
‘The weaponisation of misinformation as a term to shut down debate causes even greater harm.
‘This bill does the latter.’
Dr Coatsworth said ‘he shares the government’s deep concern about the harms of social media to community trust and cohesion’.
‘But misinformation is such a widely used accusation these days that I can’t see how the law could work practically’,’ he said.
Dr Coatsworth said that while some things online are ‘verifiably false’ the ‘only solution is to equip the community from a young age to recognise what they (falsehoods) are and to understand how social media works to manipulate debate’.
‘Let’s teach our kids critical thought and how to question and debate, not how to dismiss or reject other’s opinions or ideas with random accusations of misinformation,’ he explained.
‘I’d strongly encourage Australians to do something they may never have done before and submit to the Senate Inquiry.
‘Even if it’s a short paragraph expressing deep concern about what this Bill represents.’
Dr Coatsworth has previously admitted Australian governments and health officials lost the trust and goodwill of the public over their handling of Covid.
He told Sydney radio station 2GB in February said draconian measures to contain the virus dragged on too long and caused people to tune out and grow resentful.
In a 10-page submission made in February to a special inquiry being held on Australia’s Covid response, Dr Coatsworth admitted imposing vaccine mandates was wrong.
‘We didn’t get it wrong promoting the vaccines, but the mandates, yes, I think we did get that wrong,’ he said.
‘And I think you can say hindsight is 20/20. But hindsight gives us foresight. And if we have another pandemic, we should think long and hard whether mandates for vaccines are justified.’
Under the new laws beefed up watchdog Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) would be able to order social media companies to crack down on repeated misinformation and disinformation on their platforms.
Should the companies fail to do so they face a range of penalties and whopping fines, which could include forfeiting five per cent of their global revenue.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has denied the laws would curb freedom of expression.
‘We’ve been very clear as a government to take strong advice around this and to consult widely and to ensure that it aligns precisely with what we have under international law so as not to curb freedom of speech,’ she told the ABC earlier this month.
Shadow communications minister David Coleman has accused the government of trying to shotgun the laws through parliament after an earlier version of them was withdrawn last year following substantial public opposition.
‘How are people supposed to respond to this complicated law in just a week?,’ Ms Coleman told The Daily Telegraph.
‘Labor wants to ram this legislation through and is trying to stop the massive backlash we saw last time.’
