‘She's hopeless': Pauline Hanson says eSafety Commissioner should be sacked following loss of landmark censorship case
Chris Elston, known online as 'Billboard Chris', and Elon Musk's X prevailed in a major case against the eSafety Commission and transgender activist Teddy Cook on Tuesday following a ruling by the Administrative Review Tribunal.
The ruling rescinded a takedown order issued by the eSafety Commissioner over a social media post by Mr Elston from February last year.
In the post, the activist slammed a move to appoint Cook to a World Health Organisation panel drafting policy on caring for transgender people.
Ms Inman Grant has also come under fire for advising Communications Minister Anika Wells to include YouTube in a social media ban for under 16s – which is set to come into effect from December 10.
Ms Hanson has called out Ms Inman Grant in the wake of the Administrative Review Tribunal case ruling, claiming the commissioner is 'incompetent' and 'shouldn't be in the job at all'.
'By looks of it, she's a person pushing her own ideology, her own agenda, and she gets it wrong every time. She doesn't get it right, and it's been overturned that many times," Ms Hanson said told Sky News host Rowan Dean on Friday.
The Queensland Senator also slammed Ms Inman Grant for seeking to have YouTube included in the social media ban, a move which Ms Hanson said she opposed.
'A lot of kids get some good information from YouTube. So I think that it's just gone too far, I think she's out of her depth, I don't think she knows what the hell she's doing.'
She commended Mr Elston for winning the case against the Commission.
'I wish she'd ... be thrown out of the job. She's hopeless, useless,' Ms Hanson said.
SkyNews.com.au revealed on Thursday that about $66,000 of Australians' taxpayer dollars were spent on the eSafety Commission's legal costs to date in its defeat to Mr Elston and X Corp.
'eSafety notes the Administrative Review Tribunal's decision to set aside eSafety's decision to give a removal notice to X Corp relating to a post on X by Mr Elston," an eSafety spokesperson told SkyNews.com.au.
'This is the first case before the Tribunal seeking review of a decision where eSafety assessed the material met the criteria for adult cyber abuse.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
39 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
The cheapest way to invest, help your kids or buy a first home
Inner Melbourne had an apartment building boom in the 2010s. Victoria reached a peak of 1.55 non-house dwellings completed per 1000 residents by the March quarter of 2017, while NSW completed 1.17 non-house dwellings per 1000 residents in the same period, ABS figures show. Richard Temlett, Charter Keck Cramer executive research director, said Melbourne's apartment market was cheaper than Sydney's because it was 'catching up'. The company's analysis of 2011 and 2021 census data found almost 82,000 occupied private one-bedroom apartments in Melbourne in 2021, up 48.7 per cent in a decade, compared with 123,000 in Sydney, up 54.9 per cent. 'Sydney has a more mature apartment market with more owner-occupiers, while Melbourne has more investors,' Temlett said. 'Sydney also has minimum apartment sizes, which means bigger and more expensive.' For Michael Fotheringham, managing director at the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, this is the crux of the problem. In 2002, NSW introduced apartment standards. 'Victoria was less restrictive on that,' he said, and set minimum standards only in 2017. Loading 'So we built a lot of tiny apartments that appeal to a very niche market and they have not appreciated, which is why they are available more cheaply,' he said. The issue, however, is complicated, especially in light of an affordability crisis. Before the minimum standards, some Melbourne units had issues with flammable cladding, tiny kitchens, borrowed light and poor ventilation. Last month, the Victorian government green-lit apartments in a Greensborough development that fall short of minimum space requirements to meet its ambitious housing targets. 'There are differing views on the trade-offs here: in a supply crisis, some say we should just be building something … rather than worrying about quality and livability standards,' Fotheringham said. Loading It's an issue canvassed in Abundance, a new book being well read among the federal cabinet, which argues progressives' regulation to ensure quality housing turned into a maze of red tape, leaving people worse off. Australians' enduring obsession with houses was also a problem, Fotheringham said, as it made apartments a less attractive long-term option, influencing their design. But not everyone dreams of a big house. When 31-year-old communications professional Mitchell Blincoe started looking to buy his first home, he knew it would be a one-bedroom apartment in Melbourne's inner suburbs. 'Within what I was willing to spend, one-bedroom apartments were the only option in the inner-city area,' Blincoe said. He found a one-bedroom flat in North Melbourne with courtyard and study nook. Blincoe paid $378,000, $6000 more than it sold for in August 2024. 'If I keep it forever, that's great, and if I decide to rent it out it has good rental potential, as it's close to the University of Melbourne and the city,' he said. 'I didn't buy for resale or for capital gain – my objectives were lifestyle and affordability.' Melcorp Real Estate's Mattia Pecorino, who sold Blincoe his flat, said one-bedroom apartments on the outskirts of Melbourne's CBD with 'decent space' and amenities usually cost upwards of $300,000. The 'significantly smaller' inner-city builds, mostly short-term rentals or serviced apartments, fetched about $180,000 to $260,000. 'I've sold a few of the smaller ones lately to interstate purchasers that have noticed the market has bottomed out there,' he said. 'People who purchased off the plan for high $400,000s or low $500,000s three to four years ago … are lucky if they can achieve $400,000 on resale today.'
The Age
40 minutes ago
- The Age
Do you really need an accountant to do your tax return?
Real Money, a free weekly newsletter giving expert tips on how to save, invest and make the most of your money, is sent every Sunday. You're reading an excerpt − sign up to get the whole newsletter in your inbox. If no one has done so yet, let me be the first to wish you a happy end of financial year, a day I'm sure you've been counting down to on your calendar and staring wistfully out the window as you await its arrival. Well, wistfully stare no more, as we are officially in the 2026 fiscal year, and as the saying goes, it's tax return time baby! If you don't think about all the tax you've paid for the past 12 months, getting your tax return is basically like free money (unless you end up owing tax, in which case, I have no silver lining for you). Plus, with the awful weather in Sydney and Melbourne currently, what better time to curl up on the couch and start tallying up your deductions? You could even invite a friend! What's the problem? I am embarrassingly eager to do my return (if that's not obvious), but not everyone is so crazy about the idea. Data from the ATO shows roughly two thirds of Australians pay a tax agent to handle their affairs, while the remaining third of us do it ourselves. If that sounds like a lot, that's because it is − Australia has one of the highest rates of tax agent use in the OECD. Loading The tax office doesn't break down that data by age, but I'd bet that most people employing tax agents would be on the older side, while younger workers are more likely to do it themselves. There are a few reasons for this, one of the biggest being that the online tax lodgement service, MyTax, has only been around for a decade or so, and its e-Tax predecessor was by all accounts a complete nightmare.
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
The cheapest way to invest, help your kids or buy a first home
Inner Melbourne had an apartment building boom in the 2010s. Victoria reached a peak of 1.55 non-house dwellings completed per 1000 residents by the March quarter of 2017, while NSW completed 1.17 non-house dwellings per 1000 residents in the same period, ABS figures show. Richard Temlett, Charter Keck Cramer executive research director, said Melbourne's apartment market was cheaper than Sydney's because it was 'catching up'. The company's analysis of 2011 and 2021 census data found almost 82,000 occupied private one-bedroom apartments in Melbourne in 2021, up 48.7 per cent in a decade, compared with 123,000 in Sydney, up 54.9 per cent. 'Sydney has a more mature apartment market with more owner-occupiers, while Melbourne has more investors,' Temlett said. 'Sydney also has minimum apartment sizes, which means bigger and more expensive.' For Michael Fotheringham, managing director at the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, this is the crux of the problem. In 2002, NSW introduced apartment standards. 'Victoria was less restrictive on that,' he said, and set minimum standards only in 2017. Loading 'So we built a lot of tiny apartments that appeal to a very niche market and they have not appreciated, which is why they are available more cheaply,' he said. The issue, however, is complicated, especially in light of an affordability crisis. Before the minimum standards, some Melbourne units had issues with flammable cladding, tiny kitchens, borrowed light and poor ventilation. Last month, the Victorian government green-lit apartments in a Greensborough development that fall short of minimum space requirements to meet its ambitious housing targets. 'There are differing views on the trade-offs here: in a supply crisis, some say we should just be building something … rather than worrying about quality and livability standards,' Fotheringham said. Loading It's an issue canvassed in Abundance, a new book being well read among the federal cabinet, which argues progressives' regulation to ensure quality housing turned into a maze of red tape, leaving people worse off. Australians' enduring obsession with houses was also a problem, Fotheringham said, as it made apartments a less attractive long-term option, influencing their design. But not everyone dreams of a big house. When 31-year-old communications professional Mitchell Blincoe started looking to buy his first home, he knew it would be a one-bedroom apartment in Melbourne's inner suburbs. 'Within what I was willing to spend, one-bedroom apartments were the only option in the inner-city area,' Blincoe said. He found a one-bedroom flat in North Melbourne with courtyard and study nook. Blincoe paid $378,000, $6000 more than it sold for in August 2024. 'If I keep it forever, that's great, and if I decide to rent it out it has good rental potential, as it's close to the University of Melbourne and the city,' he said. 'I didn't buy for resale or for capital gain – my objectives were lifestyle and affordability.' Melcorp Real Estate's Mattia Pecorino, who sold Blincoe his flat, said one-bedroom apartments on the outskirts of Melbourne's CBD with 'decent space' and amenities usually cost upwards of $300,000. The 'significantly smaller' inner-city builds, mostly short-term rentals or serviced apartments, fetched about $180,000 to $260,000. 'I've sold a few of the smaller ones lately to interstate purchasers that have noticed the market has bottomed out there,' he said. 'People who purchased off the plan for high $400,000s or low $500,000s three to four years ago … are lucky if they can achieve $400,000 on resale today.'
