As Australia starts to implement much needed digital regulation on a number of issues, there is a need to ensure policy initiatives are joined up and coherent. This document presents five overarching policy principles that could assist policy-makers.

These principles include:

1. Systems and processes: Focus regulation on eliminating risks from systems and processes, expanding on our current focus on content moderation
2. Community and societal risk: Expand regulations to addresses community and societal risks, building on our comprehensive approach to Individual risks
3. Platform accountability and transparency: Ensure regulation creates accountability and transparency, rather than placing burden on individuals
4. Comprehensive regulation: Ensure the regulatory framework is comprehensive, by improving our current regulatory gaps and disjunctures
5. Strong regulators and enforced regulation: Ensure regulation is strong and enforced, by moving away from self- and co-regulation and resourcing and joining up regulators

This would create a more streamlined approach to regulation, replacing multiple disjointed obligations with more aligned upstream duties, and reducing the regulatory burden on Australia’s successful tech industry.

This approach would also be interoperable with emerging international requirements, ensuring Australian industry could expand into international markets with minimal regulatory friction.