: The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is here to talk to you this morning. Good morning, PM.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Hamish. Good to be with you.
MACDONALD: Obviously, we've had that update from Phil Haines. Do you have anything additional you can let us know about with regards to Helen's condition this morning?
PRIME MINISTER: She remains in a critical condition. I had a conversation with Phil yesterday again, and he is showing extraordinary bravery. I thought it was a remarkable press conference yesterday, or statement that he and the Governor-General were able to give at The Alfred Hospital there. He is, under the circumstances, when you talk to him, he shows his resilience and strength. And when he spoke with such love about Helen's great characteristics of her heart, which is enormous, and her brain, which of course is also extraordinary. She's an intelligent, diligent local MP who is very compassionate and kind in a way that is consistent with what the Governor-General was saying yesterday in Her Excellency's statement at The Alfred.
MACDONALD: Prime Minister, Federal MPs have been getting security briefings. I know you also attended a special virtual meeting this week with federal female MPs in the Labor Caucus. It was convened amid all of this sexual misogynistic threats and language being directed towards them, particularly online. We're seeing reports in the papers, though, that a lot of MPs saying that they don't actually feel that the current measures are up to scratch. Can you confirm you've heard that from your colleagues?
PRIME MINISTER: Of course people are concerned, they're anxious, because just about every MP, I think, probably right across the political spectrum, has had experience, certainly all of them online, there'd be no question about that, but also experienced where they feel uncomfortable with people either in their electorate office, or outside of their electorate office, or as they're travelling around. There has been a normalisation of behaviour that can be very aggressive in a way that wasn't happening a couple of decades ago.
MACDONALD: So, why is it, then, PM, that tech platforms are still not held accountable for hosting the death threats and the rape threats, in a way that a newspaper or a TV station or a radio station might be? I know this is an issue where there's sort of, there's policy debate, but in very simple terms, why are those businesses not held accountable for hosting all of those threats?
PRIME MINISTER: That's a very good question, Hamish. If the ABC publishes something online, then you're accountable. But some of these tech platforms certainly need to do better in taking material down -
MACDONALD: But my question is about the law. Why are they not held accountable?
PRIME MINISTER: That's a very good question, Hamish, as you know -
MACDONALD: But you're the Prime Minister, what's the answer?
PRIME MINISTER: We have tried, Hamish, a range of measures. Next week there is, I think, a very modest Digital Duty of Care legislation before the Parliament. We'll wait and see whether it receives support.
MACDONALD: But should the law be changed to make it illegal for any business, any platform, whatever they want to describe themselves as, publishers or platforms - should it be illegal for them to host death and rape threats?
PRIME MINISTER: I think they need to have a responsibility to take anything down like that. Yes, that is my view. And I have, you know, we have tried to do a range of legislation. What we -
MACDONALD: But do you acknowledge it hasn't worked, PM?
PRIME MINISTER: I acknowledge we haven't been able to do what we wanted to do. Yes, Hamish. We, in the wake of Bondi, we had legislation about hate speech that we weren't able to get through the Parliament. Didn't receive the support of either the Coalition or The Greens political party.
MACDONALD: So, are you going to have a go at this again? Are you going to try and tighten up the measures?
PRIME MINISTER: What we will do is listen to the authorities, and to take advice and then to engage in debate across the Parliament to do what we can to fulfil our obligation to try to keep people safe. It is completely unacceptable that the level of threats, conflict, people have been - can I say, make this point that it was incredibly unusual for there to be people charged with threatening MPs ten years ago -
MACDONALD: Sure.
PRIME MINISTER: At the moment, at the moment, there are multiple, like, double digits figures of people before courts for threats made just against myself -
MACDONALD: Yeah, I understand.
PRIME MINISTER: Double digits. That has occurred. The amount of - when I was Deputy Prime Minister, when I was a Senior Minister in the government, I had no security. When I was Leader of the Opposition, I did not have security. Today, there is much more security necessary as a result of the assessments that are made by the security agencies about people in public life. And I think that is of regret.
MACDONALD: There's obviously a patchwork of different legal frameworks across the country. Different rules for federal politicians, different protections, different rules and protections for state politicians, local politicians. This is something that we asked the Police Commissioner about on 702 back in August, about the way police in this state investigate death threats against MPs.
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MAL LANYON, NEW SOUTH WALES POLICE COMMISSIONER: In New South Wales, the majority of offences require an intent. So, if someone is threatening or posting a comment, that would be a threat. We need to make sure that there's an intent for it.
