Abusive posts about adults could be easier to remove
Senator Fatima Payman leads a small party called Australia's Voice. She wants to change the test for online abuse of adults. Posts aimed at a person would need to be threatening, harassing or very offensive. No one would need to show they were meant to cause serious harm.
Official name: Online Safety Amendment (Broadening Adult Cyber Abuse Protections) Bill 2026
- Right now, the online safety agency can only act on abuse of adults that was likely meant to cause serious harm.
- The agency has said only about 6 per cent of reports of online abuse of adults reach that bar.
- This bill would drop the "serious harm" part. Posts would instead have to be "seriously offensive", which is a harder test.
- It is a private bill and has not been voted on.
Who it affects
- Adults targeted by online abuse: More of their complaints could reach the bar for posts to be ordered down.
- People who post online: Threatening, harassing or very offensive posts aimed at a person could be removed more easily.
- eSafety, the online safety agency: It would judge complaints against the new test, including ones it is already working on.
Only 6% of reports qualify
Senator Fatima Payman brought this bill to the Senate on 3 March 2026. It is a private bill. That means a senator brought it, and the government did not.
Australia has an online safety agency called eSafety. It is an independent office that deals with harmful content online. It is run by the eSafety Commissioner.
Under the Online Safety Act 2021, the main national law on online safety, it runs a scheme for online abuse of adults. Some posts aimed at an adult cross a legal line. Then eSafety can send a notice that orders them to be removed.
Senator Payman says that line is too high. She quotes an eSafety spokesman. In September 2025, he told the West Australian newspaper that only about six per cent of reports to the scheme reach the legal bar.
A review of the Online Safety Act was given to the government in October 2024. Its idea number 18 said the bar should be lowered. This bill aims to do what that idea said.
The test now
Right now, two things must both be true for a post to count as online abuse of an adult.
First, a normal, sensible person would decide the post was likely meant to cause serious harm to one Australian adult. The law says what serious harm means. It includes serious harm to mental health.
Second, a normal, sensible person in the target's shoes would see the post as threatening, harassing or offensive.
The new test
The bill changes the first part. The post would only need to be likely meant to have an effect on one Australian adult. The words "serious harm" would be removed, along with what they mean in the law.
To balance this, the bill makes the second part harder. The post would have to be threatening, harassing or seriously offensive. Just "offensive" would no longer be enough.
The bill also changes how "seriously offensive" is judged. The post must go well past what sensible adults accept as decent and proper.
Its value as art, writing or teaching would still be weighed, along with what it is like overall.
Some posts show private sexual images. For these, eSafety would still have to think about whether the people shown agreed to it being posted.
Say someone runs a long campaign of nasty posts about a workmate. Today, eSafety may not act unless the posts were likely meant to cause serious harm. Under this bill, it could act if the posts were aimed at that person and were harassing.
Free speech
Senator Payman accepts the bill limits free speech. That is because it lets more posts be taken down. She says this is fair, because it aims to stop harm to people's feelings and mental health.
She points to a 2022 eSafety survey. It found 70 per cent of adults had at least one bad experience online in the year to November 2022.
She says making the offensive test harder means fair speech is not wrongly caught by orders to take posts down.
Waiting in the Senate
If passed, the law would start the day after it is signed into law. The Governor-General, the King's representative, signs bills into law.
It would likely cover posts online on or after that day, even if they first went up earlier. Complaints eSafety is already working on would keep going. They would be judged against the new test.
The bill was brought in on 3 March 2026. That day the debate on its main idea also started. It has not been debated or voted on since.
To become law, the Senate and then the House of Representatives would need to pass it. They are the two houses of Parliament.
Its journey through Parliament
| 03 Mar 2026 | Senate: Introduced and read a first time |
| 03 Mar 2026 | Senate: Second reading moved |