Dear Members & Senators,

The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, in Series 1, Episode 3 of Tony Armstrong’s 3-part series called End Game (available on ABC iView), said, in reference to the increase in online hate 2019-2022, “ … Indigenous Australians are twice as likely to receive online hate … “. However, the threshold for what constitutes ‘online hate’ is set so high that only about 6% of cases raised can be formally acted on. 
 
The independent ‘Report of the Statutory Review of the Online Safety Act 2021’ (https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Tabled_Documents/9184), tabled in the House and Senate on 4 February 2025, states, in ’12.3 Strategic partnerships to promote online safety’, (p. 81-83), that, “We know that some social groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from LGBTQIA+ communities, people with particular religious beliefs and older Australians, may be at higher risk of online harm.” The Report also documents that in conducting the review, a ‘roundtable’ was held with First Nations people (p.200). 
 
I fully support the adoption of all 67 Recommendations made in the Report. In particular, I would like to draw your attention to Recommendation 18, which recommends that the threshold be lowered so that more people can be kept safe:

“Recommendation 18: The adult cyber abuse scheme should be amended by lowering the threshold. The new threshold should require that an ordinary reasonable person would conclude that ‘it is likely the material was intended to have an effect on a particular Australian adult’, and that an ordinary reasonable person would ‘regard the material as being, in all the circumstances, menacing, harassing or seriously offensive.’
 
Given the current high threshold disproportionately impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, I respectfully ask, in particular, that you pursue the adoption of Recommendation 18 as a priority.

Yours sincerely,

[Your name]
[Your address]
[Your email]