Australia: who gets to define the next online harm?

On 13 September2026, Anika Wells offered to negotiate wording that would give Parliament a role in deciding new duty-of-care harm categories, while retaining an urgent-response mechanism. She was answering David Speers on ABC Insiders. This is a public negotiating position: the revised or introduced bill must establish whether and how the proposed ministerial power changes. Official transcript.

The live argument concerns who may extend obligations after the main legislation is passed. Ministerial rulemaking and parliamentary decisions expose changes to different forms of scrutiny. The next decisive record is the revised draft or introduced bill, alongside any Coalition amendment.