I was elected into the 46th Parliament of Australia on May 18th, 2019. I had just completed a PhD and handed over a charity that I had founded with my husband in 2012, which continues to provide wraparound holistic supports for young mothers so they can re-engage in education and employment.
At the time of my election, my father was very ill with a debilitating cancer, but he had been able to attend parliament for my maiden speech. He sadly died in November 2019.
On April 26th, 2020, my staff let me know that an awful video had been posted to Facebook which claimed that my husband and I were part of a paedophile ring. The woman on the FB post had read through line by line of my maiden speech and mocked every heartfelt statement I had made. She made claims that my father was incestuous and “boohoo” that he had cancer. My grief was still raw for my father, I could not believe anyone could make this up.
To say that I was shocked and horrified that someone could make up such stories about my beautiful family, saying the worst possible lies, was deeply disturbing.
She claimed that my beautiful granddaughter’s illness which had required a liver transplant at the age of 16 months had been a direct result of incest in my family. Her lies defamed my wonderful husband, who is a highly respected GP who has served our community for decades. She also claimed that the charity we had set up for young mums was established to gain access to children for evil purposes.
To say that I was shocked and horrified that someone could make up such stories about my beautiful family, saying the worst possible lies, was deeply disturbing. I was also troubled that the vulnerable young mothers who accessed the services provided might believe her lies and leave the service and be made even more vulnerable.
I was deeply distressed for everyone and sought a quick take-down of the post. This was almost impossible. I engaged lawyers to begin proceedings. The posts remained online until after the first court hearing. This was extremely expensive.
By September we had been awarded $875,000 plus damages, not that we have received, or expect to see, a cent of it.
Dr Ane Webster, Member for Mallee Source: Twitter / Twitter @The_Nationals
The implications in my case went beyond my own family. I was concerned that many others who endure bullying and defamation online, but who lack the means to clear their name or protect their family, would be unable to do so.
I have since tabled a Private Members Bill in Parliament to address this, and the Coalition government has also passed a suite of measures targeting these issues. The Online Safety Act gives the E-Safety Commissioner greater powers to crackdown on cyber bullying, online abuse and content intended for harm. Earlier this month, the Australian Government also tabled the Anti-Trolling Bill in the Lower House which is now in the Senate for consideration.
These are world-leading reforms for online safety to ensure Australians are safe and protected online.
For too long, social media platforms have hidden behind the shield of protecting ‘free speech’, while at the same time moderating their platforms with soft consequences, and worse, tacitly enabling these damaging behaviours to continue.
Freedom of speech is an inherent right that we must protect at all costs, but it is not a right to lie, destroy people’s reputations or incite violence.
We must maintain standards of speech and hold people to account for the things that they say, particularly in the public square.
In Australia, people should be able to be safe online.
