Online safety chief Julie Inman Grant is getting her own lawyer to deal with the United States’ repeated demands that she testify before Congress, even as a slew of senior bureaucrats work with her to manage the “unprecedented request” to travel to DC to defend Australia’s social media laws or face contempt charges.
Republican Congressman Jim Jordan in November summoned Inman Grant, a dual Australian-US citizen working as Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, to answer questions over her delivery of the Australian government’s online laws, including her attempts to force Elon Musk’s company X to take down graphic footage of a church stabbing in Sydney.
Jordan, who chairs the US House Judiciary Committee, labelled Inman Grant a “noted zealot for global take-downs” and an enemy of American free speech.
Inman Grant, who has previously expressed uncertainty she would be safe from prosecution if she returned to the US, said on Tuesday she had written back to Jordan via the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) to answer the committee’s questions.
“DFAT has been very engaged. My department secretary has been engaged, as has the secretary of the Attorney-General,” Inman Grant said, speaking on Tuesday night at a Senate estimates hearing.
“This is a very unprecedented request for another legislative body to try and compel a senior bureaucrat from another government doing the job that the government set out for her to do.”
Inman Grant said she would get her own legal counsel to explore her options, “but this is something I’m going to have to work through government-wide”.
Asked whether she was concerned over the power the US might have to compel her to testify, Inman Grant said: “I think they’re more focused on illegal immigrants at the moment… but yes, I’m sure that would be cause for concern”.
“But I guess what I would say is, I think it would be highly unusual for me executing my job. The Online Safety Act was developed by the Coalition. It’s always been a bipartisan issue delivered by parliament. I’m executing the will and the laws of Australia as passed by the parliament.”
She said in her letter to Jordan she had explained her role as interpreting and implementing legislation.
“But I’m not the creator, obviously not. I can’t carry the water for the parliament or the government, so they decided it really needed to be expanded to be a government-wide engagement.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended Inman Grant, saying Australia could take pride in its online regulations targeting social media giants.
Inman Grant on Tuesday rejected Jordan’s claims she had “harassed” American companies to comply with Australian regulations, and said his committee had also levelled similar allegations at European leaders as they also try to grapple with regulating online spaces.
“Obviously, we have to talk to our regulatory targets to make sure that they’re complying with our processes, and we do that in quite a constructive and cordial way,” she said.
The Senate estimates hearing also heard that the eSafety commissioner’s external legal costs have more than doubled this financial year. The commissioner’s office public servant Richard Fleming said the fees had grown from $750,000 in 2024-25, to almost $2 million so far for the financial year ending in June.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.
Brittany Busch is a federal politics reporter for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.