Tim Watts: The voices of young people in our community are often overlooked in this place, and that's why I'm participating in Raise our Voice Australia's Youth Voice in Parliament campaign this week. Sam from Altona in my electorate is 13, and, on the eve of the COP26 summit in Glasgow, he has a message for us all in this place. Sam is a public-speaking champion, so I hope I can do him proud in this...
Read More >Tim Watts: Unlike a growing number of people, I don't believe that Facebook is evil, but, like Tom and Daisy in TheGreat Gatsby, they are a careless company. Facebook smashes things up-democracy and social cohesion-and then retreats back into its money-making business and lets other people clean up the mess it's made. All too often Facebook has refused to act to prevent imminent harms until...
Read More >Tim Watts: In rising to speak on the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020, I can't help but reflect on the circumstances in which we find ourselves in debating this bill. This bill is an important piece of national security legislation, which amends the Surveillance Devices Act 2004. It also amends the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act, the Crimes Act and...
Read More >Tim Watts: On the first day of parliament this year, the Prime Minister bragged that Australia was 'the envy of the world'. He told this House that the sacrifices that Australians had made in 2020 had 'bought valuable time' and that the 'preparations' he was making would see Australia 'emerge from 2021 even stronger'. Well, look at us now! While other countries who fared far worse in 2020 are now...
Read More >Tim Watts: The government cites this Online Safety Bill as evidence of its commitment to the online safety of Australian women. I say to the House that you can see the commitment of the government to the online safety of women in this country every day in this chamber: when they are given an option to condemn the actions of the member for Bowman and they refuse. You can see the evidence of their...
Read More >Tim Watts: I move: That this bill be now read a second time. The Morrison government never misses an opportunity for a dramatic press conference on cybersecurity, but it has gone missing when called on to act on the biggest cyberthreat facing Australian organisations-ransomware. With this bill, Labor is showing the political leadership on cybersecurity policy that has been missing since the...
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