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The Federal Labor Government has officially withdrawn its Misinformation Bill.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland yesterday confirmed that “the Government will not proceed” with the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill 2024.

In a statement, Rowland revealed that “Based on public statements and engagements with senators, it is clear that there is no pathway to legislate this proposal through the Senate.”

A Detested Bill

The Misinformation Bill was deeply unpopular. During its first iteration in 2023, the bill drew more than 23,000 submissions – an astonishing result. The vast majority of these were sharply critical of the government’s proposed new laws.

Yet the bill wasn’t defeated due to people power employed against the federal Labor Party. After all, the bill passed the lower house – as expected – due to Labor’s majority in the House of Representatives.

If Labor had a majority in the Senate, they would have passed the bill despite it going against public sentiment. But with only 25 out of 76 senators being members of the Labor Party, it needs the support of the Greens as well as other independent senators to pass any piece of legislation.

And that’s where people power came into full effect.

Public Power Against Bill

Along with the Greens, Labor needed three independent senators to support its bill.

Many, including countless Canberra Declaration supporters, wrote and called their senators, urging them to abandon a bill that would suppress freedom of speech.

Faced with an avalanche of criticism against the Misinformation Bill, independent senators – who held its success or failure in their hands – one by one each made a public commitment to oppose the bill.

Every single one of them gave public input as a major reason for their stance.

Queensland independent senator Gerard Rennick is a long-standing critic of the Misinformation Bill. He referenced the many Queenslanders who told him “they do not want a government agency to referee claims made in public debate”.

Next to put forth her opposition was independent Tasmanian senator Tammy Tyrrell. On 12 November she wrote on X, “Thousands of people reached out to me concerned about this bill… it’s important to me that people feel free to express different opinions without fear of being shut down.”

Tyrrell was followed the next day by ACT senator David Pocock. “I’ve listened to the experts and to people in the ACT, and I’ll be opposing the bill unless major changes are made to the legislation”, he said.

Tasmanian senator Jacquie Lambie was next to formally commit to opposing the bill. On 15 November she wrote, “After careful consideration and listening to feedback, I’ve decided to vote no on the Government’s Misinformation and Disinformation Bill.”

On that same day, Western Australian senator Fatima Payman released a video raising the issue of freedom of expression. “I’ve heard from so many of you who share this concern and I agree”, she said.

Lastly, on Tuesday, 19 November, senators David Van and Lidia Thorpe expressed their intent to vote against the bill.

Addressing the Senate, Senator Van said, “Like many of you, I’ve received countless emails, phone calls and letters.”

“As always, I thank our constituents for their input into this.”

Thorpe wrote, “After speaking with a range of stakeholders and hearing from many community members, I’ve decided to oppose the Misinformation and Disinformation Bill.”

Latecomers to opposing the proposed legislation, on 22 November the Greens cited “evidence from experts, lawyers and the community” as reasons why they would vote against the bill.

The Greens hit out that the bill gave “media moguls like Murdoch an exemption and hands over responsibility to tech companies and billionaires like Elon Musk to determine what is true or false under ambiguous definitions.”

It left Labor with no option other than to withdraw the bill from the Senate. Had Labor progressed, the bill would have been defeated with numbers around 51–24 against.

Democracy on Display

The defeat of the Misinformation Bill represents the very best of the democratic process.

The bill began with a probable 50-50 chance of success in the Senate.

But after extensive community engagement, it ended up with a deserved trouncing.

Not every decision reached by our elected parliamentarians will reflect the will of the people. But this is an occasion where the clear position of the population prevailed.

To all those who wrote in, called your senators and prayed – thank you.

We cannot do this without you.

On this battle, we won.

And what a necessary, massive and welcome victory for free speech it is.

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