24th Feb 2021, 12:48 PM – Senate Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2021 - in Committee - Big tech; Audits, review & penalty

The majority voted against amendments introduced by South Australian Senator Rex Patrick (Independent), which means the amendments failed.

Senator Patrick explained his amendments:

These amendments deal with yet another aspect of the situation—the opaque nature of the algorithms and business practices of big tech. A fairly new area of engineering, which I know might be foreign to those present in the chamber, is where independent auditors look at algorithms—it can be algorithms in respect of commercial applications or algorithms used by government—to make sure that those algorithms are performing the functions that they ought to perform and, indeed, not introducing unintended consequences into what are automated processes.

[...]

The ACCC actually has the power to go and look at the activities and, indeed, the algorithms of companies—that was confirmed by Mr Sims at the committee inquiry—and the intent of this amendment is to make sure that the ACCC does so. Whilst they have the power now, there is no requirement for them to do algorithm audits.