The Hon Andrew Leigh MP
Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury
E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO CANBERRA, BREAKFAST WITH ROSS SOLLY
WEDNESDAY, 21 OCTOBER 2026
SUBJECTS: Helen Haines; Digital Duty of Care
ROSS SOLLY: So, yesterday we devoted a lot of the show to the terrible, terrible situation in Victoria. And our thoughts are still with everybody involved, but especially, you know, it's a terrible time for politicians, for everybody who are now having to deal with what has become a different world, I guess. Dr Andrew Leigh is actually giving a speech tonight about social media and its responsibilities and how far it's gone. Good morning to you.
ANDREW LEIGH: Good morning Ross, great to be with you.
ROSS SOLLY: Tough day yesterday. Tough 24 hours?
ANDREW LEIGH: Just shocking. Helen and I, along with Dave Sharma, founded Parliamentary Friends of Cycling back in 2020. She's one of those beautiful souls who is generous to a fault and who loves cycling. And now to think that she might never again get on a bike. If it can happen to Helen, it could happen to anyone.
ROSS SOLLY: I mean, everyone I spoke to yesterday talked about how things have changed just so much just in the last 18 months or so. Dr Andrew Leigh, with the online abuse, et cetera, have you also noticed that?
ANDREW LEIGH: Yes, certainly the volume of nasty comments on social media platforms or coming in through the inbox has changed, but you also see the statistics in terms of death threats of parliamentarians. My colleague Anne Aly revealed that just in a single week, she'd been subjected to 19 separate death threats. And, you know, it's happening overseas as well, in Germany and the United States.
ROSS SOLLY: Do you get them? Do you get them sometimes?
ANDREW LEIGH: Certainly over the course of my career, and I've taken out a personal protective order at one stage, so it's certainly something that is rising. And my main argument tonight Ross, is that social media is the biggest driver of what's going on. It's why we're seeing things changing so fast and changing around the world. Social media privileges anger, and we know that a lot of violent extremism is rooted in those algorithms which are increasingly serving up the worst of the Internet rather than the best of your friends.
ROSS SOLLY: I know you're also passionate about free speech, though. Andrew Leigh, where do we draw the line in terms of shutting down free speech and making social media more responsible?
ANDREW LEIGH: One of the things we're trying to do with the Digital Duty of Care is to require that all platforms give you a choice as to whether you would like to see an algorithmically curated feed or to see content from your friends and family. Now on Facebook, only about 7 per cent of content is coming from your friends and the rest is coming from the algorithm. So, it's less like a new telephone and more like a new television but showing some of the most violent imagery out there. We've seen a rise in violent pornography as well, fed through social media. And the violence spills over into real life, whether that's with the Rohingya, whether it's with the Christchurch massacre, or whether it's through a lot of the violent attacks we're seeing in the United States.
ROSS SOLLY: One of the problems seems to be is who decides in the end what should and shouldn't be controlled, what should be banned. There was some conjecture this week that, for example, some of the cartoons that Pauline Hanson regularly puts out there, that the Minister would have the power to shut those down if they were deemed to be, you know, offensive to politicians or making offensive – I mean, is that right? Is that your understanding of how it would work Andrew Leigh?
ANDREW LEIGH: No, that's not my understanding. I think those cartoons were offensive, but I don't think they broke any laws. What we want to do with the Digital Duty of Care is to put in place rules that give Australians more choices about what they see. If you want to see the content being fed through the algorithm, you should be able to do that, but the platforms should be able to give you the chance to see your content from your friends and family.
And this is showing up not only in political attacks, but also in gender relations. There's now a quarter of young men who believe that feminism should be resisted with violence. The gender attitudes of men in their 20s are now similar to the gender attitudes of men in their 70s. After decade of men, each generation of men being more pro-feminist than the previous one, that trend has turned around and we're now seeing the manfluencer and the misogynist accounts transforming gender attitudes among young men.
ROSS SOLLY: Well, it'll be an interesting discussion tonight. You're making this speech tonight and obviously it's an ongoing debate in the federal Parliament. Appreciate your time this morning Andrew Leigh. Thank you.
ANDREW LEIGH: Thanks so much Ross.
ROSS SOLLY: That's Dr Andrew Leigh, the Member for Fenner.
ENDS