Katherine Deves may not have been mentioned during last night’s leaders’ debate, but Scott Morrison’s support for her candidacy exposed a major contradiction in his pitch for reelection.
During the debate, Morrison answered a question about what politicians could do to encourage young voters to have faith in the political system by talking up the Coalition government’s suite of tech laws.
The laws (some enacted, some proposed) promise to “crack down on big tech” and have been touted by the government for months. Despite criticisms that the laws won’t accomplish what they set out to do, Morrison has hoped to tap into fears about online safety, free speech and the wellbeing of children forced to spend time on their devices while in lockdown during the pandemic.
Morrison’s claims of wanting to protect people online are uncomfortably at odds with the fact he is backing a candidate who has used social media to demonise trans Australians, a group that frequently faces real harm because of their gender identity.
By now you’ve heard about the Liberal candidate for Warringah, Katherine Deves. The Sydney lawyer and mother of three has deleted her Twitter account, but not before thousands of posts about transgender people were archived. There has been a constant drip of stories about views she publicly espoused — and there will be more to come.
It was incredible to see Morrison beat his chest and promote his passing of legislation to keep people safe online while his captain’s pick was simultaneously using social media to call transgender Australians mutilated and sex offenders, and accuse them of doing “womanface”.
(By the way, Morrison yesterday claimed that Deves was being cancelled. You know who’s silencing her? Her own campaign. Deves has been forbidden from talking to the media, the AFR reports.)
Beyond the galling nature of it, Deves’ online transphobia also exposes the limitations of the way this government has approached being safe online. Because Deves didn’t direct comments at an individual, it wouldn’t come under the Online Safety Act or attract the attention of the safety commissioner. She made the comments under her own name, so the Social Media (Anti-Trolling) Bill won’t apply.
People should be able to be who they are — online and offline — without facing outrageous and false slurs about their identity. Morrison’s hand-picked candidate Katherine Deves unintentionally proves that his own government’s campaign about online safety is more about aesthetics than it is about protecting Australians.
