Senator Roberts: Thank you, Chair. And thank you for appearing today. Just to clarify, I looked up the
definition of regime, and it includes the government of the day, so, Senator Watt, you are a part of the Albanese regime.
Chair: Have you got questions?
Senator Roberts: Yes, I have, I just wanted to clarify that. Mr Pezzullo, counterterrorism is important; I want to say that up-front. Extremists can pose a threat; I want to say the up-front. But labelling and categorising people, anti-vax etcetera—that is not okay. What has been the arrangement between Home Affairs and social media platforms to intervene or censor or block posts related to COVID-19 that were or are contrary to government policy? Was it purely being the conduit from the department of health to the media platforms?
Mr Pezzullo: And also making judgements against the platforms’ own policies, but to answer the senator’s question, I said earlier that we’re not the arbiters of health science. Can you describe what might have triggered action on the part of our staff to start a to draft up a referral, for instance? Ms Hawkins?
Ms Hawkins: Senator in terms of the way I was answering the previous senator’s question, I would say to you that the government was concerned about instances of harmful mis- and disinformation in relation to COVID. This line of effort was set up in 2020 and, as the secretary has said, it came out of the fact that we had been doing referrals in relation to terrorist and violent extremist content. As I understand the secretary’s evidence in terms of having conversations with the department of health early in the piece about the fact that we could use that same kind of mechanism to provide referrals about harmful mis- and disinformation in relation to COVID, we could use a similar technique that we had been using in the context of terrorist and violent extremist content, and we could use that same kind of technique in relation to harmful mis- and disinformation in the context of COVID.
For example, in relation to Facebook’s policies on mis- and disinformation, we scanned the environment, we identified where there were harmful instances of mis- and disinformation in relation to COVID, and then we provided those referrals to platforms, such as Facebook, for them to determine against their own policy about not allowing COVID mis- and disinformation on their platforms. So, in relation to their own policy, we then made referrals to say, ‘You might want to look at these posts, in the context of your own policy, about not having COVID mis- and disinformation on your platform.’ That’s what we have been doing since 2020, and, as the secretary said earlier, we will finish doing that on 30 June this year.
Senator Roberts: Mr Pezzullo, your department has been a conduit between the department of health and Meta and other platforms, and those platforms have been funded by big pharma to shut down posts that raise any questions about the COVID-19 injections. So you’re actually aiding and abetting censorship of relevant and scientifically correct information. As Senator Antic pointed out, much of what was labelled misinformation by people like Meta is now found to be correct and true. So, you aided and abetted in the injection of Australians that led to 30,000 excess deaths in 2022.
Chair: Senator Roberts, do you have a question?
Senator Roberts: Yes, I did.
Chair: The officials are here to answer your questions.
Senator Roberts: You were a conduit from the department of health to Meta and other platforms. Are you a conduit for any other departments? Do you follow their instructions just like you followed the department of health’s?
Mr Pezzullo: On the question of health, ‘conduit’ may not be the right phrase, because that would imply that an action was initiated in the Department of Health, sent to us as, if you like, a clearing house and then forwarded on. I think the evidence you’ve heard is that, in order to relieve the Department of Health at the time when we were dealing with the front end of a public health crisis, we stepped into that breach to say: ‘We’ve got the capability. As long as we can understand from ATAGI and others what the broad parameters are of health information the public should be advised of versus harmful misinformation, we’ll run with that’. And we put in place a program that allowed us to do that. As to your characterisation of the COVID-19 response and the efficacy of vaccines—you made reference to Australians being injected—I ask you to direct those questions to the department of health.
Senator Roberts: I will be.
Mr Pezzullo: I’m sure you will be. They’re better qualified to give you a better view, certainly, than I can, about the efficacy of that advice. We’re not a health department. We don’t have an independent way of saying to the—
Senator Roberts: So, you’re a conduit.
Mr Pezzullo: Well, ‘conduit’—again, I’ll just repeat what I said.
Senator Roberts: You take orders from the department of health.
Mr Pezzullo: A conduit implies that an action is initiated in one department, it comes through a middle broker, such as ourselves, and ends up in Facebook. Other than the policy settings being made known to us by the department of health, this was an area of action, like so many other things in the early days of COVID, where we didn’t need any instructions; we were just told to get on with a function, which we performed. Occasionally there would be engagement with Health, to make sure that we weren’t operating off obsolete information.
Senator Roberts: So you were just told to do it. Who was the service provider advising you on what was or wasn’t misinformation?
Mr Pezzullo: We use the service provider to do the scanning, do we not?
Ms Hawkins: That’s right. The service provider that we have used is M&C Saatchi.
Mr Pezzullo: Who do the scanning.
Ms Hawkins: Who do the scanning. They—
Mr Pezzullo: They’re not scientific advisors, as such.
Ms Hawkins: Exactly. They’re scanning the platforms and then providing us with proposed referrals that they consider are in breach of the platform’s own policy on misinformation and disinformation in relation to COVID. Then there would be staff in my team who would consider that, and, after considering Saatchi’s proposed referrals, we would decide whether or not to pass it on to the platform.
Senator Roberts: Is it not true that it was said in past Senate estimates that Home Affairs considers that a significant threat to Australia is that of domestic terrorism?
Mr Pezzullo: I’m sorry?
Senator Roberts: Isn’t it true that in past Senate estimates Home Affairs has said that it considers a
significant threat to Australia is that of domestic terrorism?
Mr Pezzullo: Most certainly.
Senator Roberts: I was hoping you’d say that.
Mr Pezzullo: It’s one of the key risks that we seek to manage.
Senator Roberts: Do you consider that those who would challenge the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccinations are domestic terrorists—if they challenge government policy?
Mr Pezzullo: Not if it wasn’t associated with any extremism, politically motivated violence or planning to attack institutions of society, no.
Senator Roberts: Do you consider that those senators who have posted comments opposed to the COVID-19 mandated vaccines—injections—are domestic terrorists?
Mr Pezzullo: Senators?
Senator Roberts: Yes.
Mr Pezzullo: You can post whatever you like, Senator. You have the privilege of being a senator.
Senator Roberts: I’m pleased that you just said I can post whatever I like, but Meta will not let people like Senator Antic and myself, and Senator—
Mr Pezzullo: If they, with their own service conditions, take your post down, then you can you deal with them as an elected representative. If you want to contest their takedown, then feel free.
Senator Roberts: Are you aware of any social media posts by elected members of this Senate that have been secretly censored through this arrangement?
Mr Pezzullo: I have no advice or information on that.
Senator Roberts: Interfered with in any way?
Mr Pezzullo: I don’t know.
Senator Roberts: Limited in reach? Not just censored, but limited in reach, so we can get to fewer people?
Mr Pezzullo: A posting by a member of the House or the Senate? I don’t know. I will check. When we come back to Senator Antic, will I be surprised to learn that there were any referrals that related to a member of parliament?
Ms Hawkins: I hope not.
Mr Pezzullo: I’ll check, but I’m rather thinking I won’t be surprised.
Senator Roberts: Are you aware of any posts by members of parliament that were taken down as a result of your actions?
Mr Pezzullo: That was a side discussion I just had. I don’t even know that we made any referrals that related to parliamentarians.
Ms Hawkins: I would have to take it on notice, Senator.
Mr Pezzullo: I would be surprised and verging on disappointed if we had.
Senator Roberts: Could you find out in particular if Home Affairs has been involved with or responsible for any of the posts that have been taken down from my media pages and also restricted in any way.
Mr Pezzullo: That, in effect, is a subset of the question asked by Senator Antic, but we’ll make a particular effort to check. I’m interested as well. There are questions of privilege that I would be much more respectful of than Facebook might be. It might well be, if we have made such a referral, that it’s something that I’ll need to reflect on. But I will check. In fact, why don’t I come back to you directly in relation to your own personal circumstances, on notice?
Senator Roberts: Thank you. Several MPs, in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, have
been heavily censored for posting material that was classified by social media platforms as misinformation and has now been found to be true.
Mr Pezzullo: Regarding the latter part of your assertion—in what might have been a question; I’m not quite sure—I don’t have any basis for thinking that something that was considered to be misinformation at the time under social media policies is now, through some kind of scientific evolution, considered to be true. I just don’t know.
Senator Watt: Senator Roberts, would you mind clarifying who it is that you say has found these comments to be true?
Senator Roberts: The government itself. Pfizer itself has admitted itself that the COVID-19 injections are not safe and effective. Yet the government, the previous regime, under Morrison, said that they were safe and effective. They’re neither effective nor safe. They have negative efficacy. That’s proven.
Senator Watt: That’s always been your opinion. I’m wondering which authority you’re pointing to that has deemed—
Senator Roberts: Pfizer vice-presidents.
Senator Paterson: A point of order. It’s not appropriate for a minister to ask a senator a question.
Senator Watt: One of your senators was asking about this as well.
Senator Paterson: No. A minister is directing questions to a senator. I don’t think that’s the usual order of—
Senator Watt: Well, when an assertion is made that things are true—
Senator Roberts: Mr Pezzullo, are you aware that—
Chair: Senators! I think the minister is actually trying to assist Senator Roberts, as I think most of us do.
Senator Roberts: if—
Senator Watt: If an assertion is going to be made that something is untrue, I think someone—
Chair: Minister! I’m speaking. Thank you. Senator, you have one last question.
Senator Roberts: How many other senators have had their media posts censored through these
arrangements? Could you get back to me on that one as well, please.
Mr Pezzullo: I will, as a further subset of the question taken on notice from Senator Antic, make a particular point of checking whether any referrals related to members of the House or the Senate—inclusive of you, but others as well.
Senator Roberts: Thank you. Minister, if senators have had their media posts censored by Home Affairs being a conduit to Meta and other platforms, then I call for a full royal commission to get to the bottom of this gross breach of freedom of speech at the highest level. The Labor Party itself—
Mr Pezzullo: I’m so sorry, Senator, I missed the first part of your question.
Chair: I don’t think it was a question.
Senator Roberts: The Labor Party has already said—Anthony Albanese said, before the election, that he committed to a royal commission. Will we now have a Labor Party royal commission?
Senator Watt: The whole thing is based on a hypothetical about whether senators or MPs have had their social media interfered with. Let’s wait and see what the answer to that question is. Let’s continue the questioning with Senator ‘Professor’ Rennick.
Member of the committee interjecting—
Senator Watt: I don’t spread COVID misinformation.
Senator Rennick: We’re not the ones spreading misinformation, Murray.