Many of Australia’s public policy settings were designed decades ago. Since that time, society and the economy have changed radically. Australia’s outdated policy settings now extend to matters as important and diverse as taxation, competition policy, drug laws, reproductive healthcare, the carbon transition, media regulation and the organisation of our parliaments. Change is urgent. This is how we achieve reform, write Scott Hamilton and Stuart Kells.
On 8 October 2024 a panel of speakers came together for the launch of A Better Australia: Politics, Public Policy and How to Achieve Lasting Reform at the University of Melbourne. With former Prime Minister the Hon Julia Gillard AC, former Victorian Premier the Hon John Brumby AO, and La Trobe University’s Professor Andrea Carson, we discussed how Australia’s policy settings were no longer fit for purpose; how beneficial change was therefore urgent; and how such change might best be achieved.
The emergence of mega platforms – such as in social media and online commerce – is one example of an important new development that has changed the game in economics as well as in politics. The architects of Australia’s competition laws and policy frameworks did not envisage digital behemoths that function like natural monopolies or public utilities, and that have huge power over the flow of information and commerce.
The impacts of powerful social media platforms also play out along gender lines. At a time when some traditional media outlets has become much more careful and thoughtful about matters of gender, social media has gone in the opposite direction, distributing vast amounts of toxic content. Much of that content targets female politicians and women in general.
The social media platforms have cleverly avoided accountability for distributing offensive content by arguing they did not have the same responsibility as traditional media publishers to moderate or remove hateful and harmful material. On dubious grounds the platforms have fended off calls for stronger rules, such as ones that would hold........