Discussion on Australia's eSafety Commissioner

Paul Karp from Politico.

Thanks for your speech, Minister.

Um, Julie Inman Grant has copped a lot of

abuse in her role from

Elon Musk calling her the censorship commissar to more recently

Pauline Hanson calling her a Karen at CPAC over the weekend.

Is Australia's eSafety Commissioner the worst job in the world?

Wh- wh- why, why do you think, why do you think, uh, Inman

Grant has copped this abuse?

Mm.

And is the solution, uh, when her term is up, to move from having

an eSafety Commissioner to having a whole commission to collectively

deliberate?

Mm. Um, you poor bugger. Um,

I... Let me make this point. Um, we were the subject of a lot of discussion

at CPAC over the weekend, Julie and I, and

I hope they've all had a lie down after they've run off all their steam.

Um, it was a very excitable bunch.

I would make the point that Julie has not only done an

outstanding job, she was

appointed by the coalition and then she was reappointed by the

coalition,

and now many of those people who made that decision are leading the

charge in the criticism against her, and they should be held

accountable for that change of position and for their

conduct. I think it's an incredibly difficult

position. I...

We have talked, you know, we catch up frequently.

We talk about the pressure and abuse

that a position like eSafety Commissioner gets put under.

It is testimony to the fact that online is not safe, and

particularly it is not safe for women.

And part of legislating a digital duty of care is about

making it a safer place for all people who work

here in Australia, and, um, thank you,

Julie, and I'm sorry that happened to you.

Is a group of commissioners rather than one, um, ultimate decision

maker a, a good solution to that, though?

It's certainly one solution. I'm, I am considering at the moment given the

resourcing required for the digital duty of care, um, and the, the

volume that-