In Senate Hearings Monday, May 22nd 2023, DOHA representatives told Senator Antic that the OCIA was initially set up in the wake of the 2019 Christchurch shootings as a counter-terrorism effort to monitor and report Terrorism & Violent Extremist Content (TVEC). However, under the Scott Morrison Government, the Department was given the directive to, “lean in on Covid dis- and misinformation”.
Senator Antic responded:
What you’re describing, effectively there is a censorship industrial complex that arises out of the Department of Health, presumably ATAGI and the Therapeutic Goods Association (sic) directing traffic through the Department of Home Affairs to enforce that?
Secretary of the Department, Michael Pezzullo AO, did not accept this characterisation, however he told Senator Antic that DOHA did receive funding to monitor social media posts related to Covid on behalf of the Department of Health (DOH). The funding is set to end on June 30th 2023.
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