Anthony Albanese has dismissed Elon Musk’s claims the Labor government was “fascist”, saying the US billionaire needed to recognise X “has a social responsibility”.
“If Mr Musk doesn’t understand that, that says more about him than it does about my government,” the Australian prime minister said on Saturday.
Musk, who owns the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, made the comments about new legislation aimed at tackling deliberate lies spread on social media, which could see social media companies fined up to 5% of their annual turnover.
Musk responded to a post on X about Australia’s measures by simply posting: “Fascists”.
Musk has clashed with the Australian government multiple times over the past year, including over requests for X to take down clips of a Sydney bishop allegedly being stabbed.
In April the eSafety commissioner ordered X to remove the graphic content and initiated proceedings in the federal court to have the material taken down. In June the eSafety commissioner discontinued the proceedings, but a separate administrative appeals tribunal review of the topic is expected to be heard in October.
During the months-long saga, Musk accused the government of suppressing free speech.
Albanese was also asked on Saturday about the huge uptake of renewable power, including in opposition leader Peter Dutton’s home state of Queensland.
The PM said the figures for the uptake of rooftop solar power showed voters were embracing renewables and understood their benefits.
“What these figures show is that Australians know that the cheapest form of energy is renewables. That’s why they’re putting it on their roofs,” he said.
“Nuclear energy is the most expensive, the slowest to roll out, and Peter Dutton is relying upon technology that doesn’t even exist anywhere in the world. What these figures show is that voters themselves are rejecting the idea that nothing should happen until the 2040s and sometime in the future.”
In June, Dutton announced the Coalition planned to build seven nuclear power plants and two small modular reactors. The nuclear pledge drew unanimous blowback from state premiers but Dutton told supporters he was prepared to override state nuclear bans.
Analysis from the Smart Energy Council found the controversial energy plan would cost taxpayers a minimum of $116bn – the same cost as delivering the Albanese government’s plan for 82% renewables by 2030, and an almost 100% renewable energy mix by 2050 – and as much as $600bn while supplying just 3.7% of Australia’s energy mix by 2050.