Based With Senator Alex Antic - Episode 44 – Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger – Digital Duty of Care Labor's Digital Duty of Care Bill allows for the eSafety commissioner to create fake/sock puppet accounts to conduct "research" on social media algorithms. It isn't clear what the limits of this strange feature will be or how exactly it will be used. Watch as Michael Shellenberger discusses this issue and more on the latest episode of Based on Youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=_Sq0hdBA…

Based With Senator Alex Antic - Episode 44 – Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger – Digital Duty of Care Michael Shellenberger is a leading investigative journalist well known for his work on the Twitter Files. He is the founder and president of Civilization Works, a nonprofit that incubates ideas, leaders, and movements, and cofounder of the California Peace Coalition. Michael is a fierce advocate for freedom of speech, and in 2024 he campaigned extensively against the Labor Government’s proposed “Mis and Dis Information” laws. His work played a major role in ensuring those proposed laws were never introduced into the Parliament. A previous guest on Based Podcast, on this episode Senator Antic and Michael discuss the serious and frightening reality of the Government’s dystopian “Digital Duty of Care” Bill, the state of freedom of speech online both in Australia and around the world, and the dwindling support for the near defunct “climate change” scare narrative.

Today I had the honour of speaking at Parliament House on the occasion of His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia's first pastoral visit to Australia. Australia is home to almost 95,000 Serbian Orthodox Christians and more than 535,000 Orthodox Christians more broadly. Many Orthodox believers here in Australia take great courage and hope from the Serbian Orthodox Church's profound witness throughout history of faithfulness in the midst of hardship. Thank you to His Holiness for visiting Parliament this morning.

Thanks to @shellenberger and the @TheIPA for dropping by to chat to me about the Albanese Labor Government’s terrible Digital Duty of Care Bill. Keep an eye out for our chat on Based with Senator Alex Antic soon. youtube.com/@basedantic

Absolute 🎯

Labor's Digital Duty of Care Bill would give the government the power to invent new categories of online harm which would have to be scrubbed from the algorithm. This is not about keeping kids safe online, it's about controlling what Australians are allowed to see on social media. Don't fall for it. To hear more from me and stay up to date, signup to my email newsletter here: alexantic.com.au/join

Labor's Digital Duty of Care Bill is just a resuscitated version of their defeated mis and dis information bill. This bill is less about cyberbullying and more about restricting anything a Minister for Communications deems "seriously harmful" at a later date. Don't fall for the rhetoric. We must defeat this Bill. To hear more from me and stay up to date, signup to my email newsletter here: alexantic.com.au/join

Australians are walking away from mainstream media in growing numbers and now Labor is directing $153.5 million of taxpayers’ money into Australia’s media industry including major commercial media organisations. Some outlets are receiving $39,000 for every eligible journalist they employ! If the market is rejecting your product, why is the government stepping in to keep it afloat? To hear more from me and stay up to date, signup to my email newsletter here: alexantic.com.au/join

The SA Division of the Liberal Party held our Annual General Meeting on the weekend and I was fortunate enough to be elected as the new President of the division. Labor and the mainstream media are more interested in me than I am in them so rather than wasting my time addressing them I thought I’d speak to you directly here. Thanks for all the support. To hear more from me and stay up to date, signup to my email newsletter here: alexantic.com.au/join

Under the "No Jab, No Pay" laws, many parents have been financially pressured into their decisions despite legitimate personal or medical concerns. My repeal Bill would have wound back these laws and restored the right of conscientious objection for parents. Such decisions should lie with parents, not the government. Sadly, this Bill was not passed in the Senate. I thank Senators @PaulineHansonOz, @MRobertsQLD, @SenatorSeanBell, @SenatorTWhitten and @senatorbabet for supporting this Bill. To hear more from me and stay up to date, signup to my email newsletter here: alexantic.com.au/join

Unfortunately, this morning my "No Jab No Pay" Repeal Bill was voted down by the Senate with only Senators @PaulineHansonOz, @MRobertsQLD, @SenatorTWhitten, @senatorbabet, @SenatorSeanBell and myself voting in support. It’s my view that it is fundamentally wrong to tie childcare payments to vaccination status. Australian parents are entitled to object on medical or other grounds. Thanks to Senator Ralph Babet for using his private Senator’s time on this important Bill. To hear more from me and stay up to date, signup to my email newsletter here: alexantic.com.au/join

Tomorrow in the Senate, my “No Jab No Pay” Repeal Bill finally gets to a vote. If passed it would restore the basic right of parents to object to some or all of the childhood vaccination schedule for personal, religious, medical or philosophical reasons without the government cutting off Child Care Subsidy and Family Tax Benefit. Financial coercion is not consent. It’s time to end this policy and put decision-making back where it belongs, with Australian families. Thanks to @senatorbabet for using his time in the chamber to move the Bill. To hear more from me and stay up to date, signup to my email newsletter here: alexantic.com.au/join

In our once free country, you used to own the things you paid for and didn’t live your life on subscription. The digital prison is closing in. Not just in Australia but globally. Once it’s complete, your freedom will rely on your compliance to big government and big tech who will control the off switch to your participation in society. To hear more from me and stay up to date, signup to my email newsletter here: alexantic.com.au/join

The Labor Government has released an exposure draft of its Online Safety Amendment (Digital Duty of Care) Bill 2026 and it’s much worse than I first thought. Australians now have platforms like X where they can speak without institutional gatekeepers and the political class of the left hates that. Instead of winning the argument, they are rewriting the rules of speech itself and calling it “safety.” This is not about protecting people. It is about controlling the conversation. To hear more from me and stay up to date, signup to my email newsletter here: alexantic.com.au/join

This afternoon the Senate rejected my order for production of documents regarding the Australian Bureau of Statistics decision to replace its long-standing excess mortality methodology. Why would the Labor Government vote against it? Australians are still in the dark about the real excess mortality figures in Australia.

Why has the Australian Bureau of Statistics changed its methodology for calculating expected and excess mortality? Today I will move a motion demanding every document behind the ABS decision to ditch the old method for a new model. We need the full picture, baseline choices, treatment of COVID years, what 2024–25 figures would have been under the old method, and the exact impact of the switch. Australians deserve to have answers.

Labor is moving a new amendment today that gives the eSafety Commissioner more power to enforce the unnecessary under-16 social media ban. If passed it will let the eSafety Commissioner summons parties to answer questions regarding age compliance under oath and face jail or big fines if they refuse. Unsurprisingly I will not support it.

The media used to seek the truth but in 2026 all you get are the same talking points, night after night, no hard questions asked. The ad revenue dried up and taxpayers got stuck with the $150 million bill! 60% of 18-24 year olds have never used a newspaper for news, and most have tuned out TV and radio too. Independent voices are already doing the job legacy media forgot how to do. I suppose we should feel sorry for journalists with a HECS debt for a career that might have less than 3 years on the clock. Nah. Bye bye, legacy media, you won’t be missed. To hear more from me and stay up to date, signup to my email newsletter here: alexantic.com.au/join