Brisbane / Canberra – The Australian Lobby Group (AusLobby) today announced it has secured commitments from Opposition Leader the Hon Angus Taylor MP and Liberal National Party representative Henry Pike MP to oppose the Albanese Labor Government’s proposed Digital Duty of Care legislation, including the exposure draft of the Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill 2026 and any recast version that hands Canberra new powers over lawful speech, news and political debate online.
The announcement follows AusLobby’s ongoing parliamentary engagement, including recent discussions in Brisbane with the Opposition Leader, and continues the organisation’s campaign against what it describes as government censorship dressed up as “online safety”.
Labor’s draft would impose a statutory “digital duty of care” on a wide range of online services, expand the powers of the eSafety Commissioner, allow the Communications Minister to define new categories of “harm”, and attach civil penalties of up to $109.2 million. AusLobby says the framework is not confined to illegal content. It would pressure platforms to over-censor lawful political speech, journalism and public debate under threat of enormous fines.
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor has already described the exposure draft as a threat to free speech. Quotes attributable to Mr Taylor include:
“This exposure draft is unacceptable in its current form because the reality is it’s providing a blank cheque for political censorship to the minister and to the government.”
“Protecting children cannot become an excuse to hand politicians sweeping powers over lawful speech, news, political debate and what Australians are allowed to see online.”
“This is a government that cannot be trusted. This is a minister who cannot be trusted… to hand a blank cheque to the government, to this minister, on political censorship is absolutely unacceptable.”
AusLobby says Mr Taylor and Mr Pike have now given a clear undertaking that they will oppose this legislation in any form, especially a bill that retains ministerial discretion to invent new “harms”, expands eSafety’s reach over lawful content, or forces platforms to police political speech.
Position statement – Scott Challen, Director, Australian Lobby Group:
“Labor is selling this as child safety. It is a censorship machine. We have already seen this government use ‘safety’ and ‘cohesion’ to justify laws that punish ordinary Australians for saying what they think. A duty of care that lets a minister decide what counts as harm is not protection. It is political control.
‘Angus Taylor and Henry Pike have given AusLobby a commitment to oppose any form of this Digital Duty of Care. That is the standard we will hold them to. Kids should be protected. Criminal content should be taken down. None of that requires a blank cheque for Anika Wells, the eSafety Commissioner, or the Prime Minister to decide what Australians are allowed to read, watch or say.
We will not accept a watered-down version with the same architecture. If the power remains, the threat remains. Canberra already listens to Big Tech, foreign-linked NGOs and the bureaucracy. It needs to start listening to Australians.”
AusLobby notes this follows its January 2026 warning that Labor’s censorship agenda was “dangerous overreach”, and its February 2026 securing of One Nation commitments to repeal oppressive hate-speech laws. The group will continue pressing the Coalition, the Nationals and the crossbench for the same hard line.
Australians who want Canberra to hear them can join at auslobby.com.au.
About the Australian Lobby Group
The Australian Lobby Group is a people-powered advocacy organisation built by Australians for Australians. We are not funded by foreign interests, billion-dollar industries or the big end of town. Our job is to make ignoring Australians politically expensive.