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Federal politics live: Labor scraps controversial ministerial discretion in digital duty of care bill

The federal government has scrapped controversial ministerial powers in proposed new online safety laws and beefed up protections for news content.

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Labor scraps ministerial discretion in digital duty of care bill

Labor has scrapped controversial ministerial powers in proposed new online safety laws and beefed up protections for news content.

The digital duty of care, which would require technology companies to take reasonable steps to prevent foreseeable harms on their platforms, is due to be introduced to parliament today.

Communications Minister Anika Wells has confirmed two key changes to the draft released last month, which she will outline in a speech to the National Press Club later today.

"In response to concerns we heard during the exposure draft consultation and to make this abundantly clear, we have removed the ministerial rule-making power to define new harms in the final bill," she will say.

New harms can instead be added by parliament through legislative amendment.

Wells has also clarified protections for journalists and news media so there is now a "carve-out" for professional news material.

Good morning 👋

Hello and welcome to our federal politics live blog! It's great to have you join us for the final sitting day of the sitting week.

I'm Josh Boscaini live from Parliament House in Canberra, here and ready to bring you all of today's federal politics news.

You know that digital duty of care bill you've been hearing about for the past few weeks? Well that will finally be introduced to parliament today.

However the government has scrapped controversial ministerial powers in the bill in a bid to help it get over the line in the upper house.

And if you missed it, there was a bit of shenanigans in the Senate yesterday afternoon. The upper house voted to discharge a bill to wind down private health insurance rebates for over-65s.

Labor has vowed to reintroduce the bill today, so we'll be keeping an eye out for that.

Let's get this show on the road!

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