Communications minister Michelle Rowland has announced Labor will abandon its push to introduce a misinformation Bill.

Ms Rowland made the announcement on Sunday following revelations the Greens, Coalition and several crossbenchers would not support the legislation.

‘Based on public statements and engagements with senators, it is clear that there is no pathway to legislate this proposal through the Senate,’ she said in a statement.

‘The government will not proceed with the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2024.

‘The government invites all parliamentarians to work with us on other proposals to strengthen democratic institutions and keep Australians safe online, while safeguarding values like freedom of expression.

‘It is incumbent on democracies to grapple with these challenges in a way that puts the interests of citizens first.’

The Bill aimed to combat seriously harmful content on digital platforms.

Greens’ communications spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said that while the intent behind the Bill was ‘well-meaning,’ the proposed laws were ‘badly and poorly explained and implemented’.

She’s called for stronger regulation, which would target ‘dangerous algorithms’ and heavy financial penalties for social media companies.

‘We’ve got to get back to the real problem, and that is how these companies profit off these dangerous posts,’ she told the ABC.

‘If you want to stop the dangerous posts spreading like wildfire, hit them where it hurts, and that’s the dollar.’

Shadow attorney-general Michaelia Cash said the Bill was an attempt to ‘censor free speech’.

‘This Bill is not about misinformation and disinformation,’ she told Sky News.

‘This Bill is about the Albanese government giving bureaucrats the ability to say whether what you and I say is misinformation or disinformation.’

In October, religious groups and the human rights commissioner argued Labor’s proposed bill to combat misinformation and disinformation would threaten freedom of expression and ‘undermine democracy’.

The Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) said it would pose a ‘serious threat to the Australian democracy’.

‘One of our concerns about this Bill is that it has the potential to stifle the processes through which knowledge moves on,’ ACL researcher Elizabeth Taylor said.

‘The misinformation of today may be proven to be correct tomorrow, or new information may come to displace the incumbent orthodoxies of the day.

‘This is the process of progress.’

ACL chief executive Michelle Pearse said the Bill’s provisions that would protect religious vilification were ‘an over-reaction to censor contrary opinions’.

Melbourne Archbishop Peter A Comensoli also questioned who would be making judgments around what counts as misinformation and disinformation and said there needed to be more transparency.

‘The legislation itself does not deal with this in any articulate way… the issue around who would be making judgments around what is truthful, what is fact, not so much the content itself,’ he said.

‘The platforms themselves have bias.’

Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay said the legislation needed ‘greater transparency, accountability and scrutiny mechanisms’ and feared it could create ‘tiers of speech rights’.