Press Conference - Parliament House, Canberra

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning on this beautiful Canberra day. Today I can announce that National Cabinet has endorsed my government's world first decision to legislate 16 as the minimum age to use social media. We had a really good constructive discussion about the details of what the legislation will look like. Tasmania would have preferred the age of 14, but they didn't want to stand in the way of national uniformity and regarded getting a uniform national decision and process was most important. Social media is doing social harm to our young Australians and I am calling time on it. The safety and mental health of our young people has to be a priority and my government will do all that we can to protect our young Australians, but also to provide support for parents and teachers who are dealing with these issues. I want Australian parents to know that we have your back. This legislation follows extensive consultation with states and territories over a considerable period of time, with parents and teachers, with young people. The work that went into the social media summits that were called in Sydney and Adelaide in recent weeks. Academics, child development experts, industry and civil organisations, First Nations organisations have all been consulted over a period of time because this is a difficult issue and we want to get it right. We want to say upfront that this won't solve all of the problems, but what this will do is send a social message about what society thinks is appropriate going forward and that will provide that assistance and support for this to be delivered. We will introduce legislation into the Parliament in the next sitting week, which is in just a fortnight's time, and we are hopeful of getting support for that legislation across the House of Representatives and the Senate. We'll work closely with stakeholders in the lead up to the commencement of the law, with a lead time of 12 months following the Bill's passage, to give industry, governments and the eSafety Commissioner time to implement systems and processes. We will ensure as well that young Australians retain access to services that primarily provide education and health services and work constructively to make sure that that is able to be delivered. We see this as an issue that's above politics and we want to work across the political spectrum, as we did today, to receive support for our approach. This Bill builds on my government's work to address online harms for young people. One of the discussions that we had with Premiers and Chief Ministers today was an analogy drawn between the banning of phones in classrooms and the feedback from that, controversial to some when it was introduced, is just overwhelmingly positive in the impact in making sure that students are concentrating on what's going on in their class and making sure as well that social interaction is improving. Kids are playing with each other at lunchtime instead of playing on their phones - that's a good thing. And the Victorian Premier today spoke about, wouldn't it be good with the consultation they've done extensively. We want young people involved in sport, in music, in talking to each other and interacting with each other on a face to face basis and that will certainly make a difference. The key elements of the legislation, of course, are just five - set a minimum age of 16, establish an obligation on social media services, not parents or young people, to take reasonable steps to prevent age restricted users from having an account. The third is a commencement in 12 months after the Bill's passage. Fourth is the provision of exemptions to ensure that young Australians retain access to the services that they need. And fifthly, robust protections for personal information, privacy issues to be dealt with as well, with significant penalties for platforms that breach these provisions. We'll also include in the legislation a two year provision to assess the legislation. This is new ground. As new technology is changing our lives, governments have to respond. That's what we're doing and this Minister is leading that work in a way that is constructive. And I just pay tribute to Minister Rowland for the extraordinary work that she has done. I'm very proud to lead a government with the capacity that we have around the Cabinet room. There's no one better than Michelle Rowland and I'd ask her to talk.

MICHELLE ROWLAND, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS: Thanks very much, Prime Minister. As the Prime Minister said, introducing this minimum age to access social media is about protecting young people, not punishing them. And our decision to arrive at a minimum age of 16 is based on extensive consultation and is pleasing today to see that National Cabinet has endorsed that approach. National Cabinet also noted that this legislation would strike a balance between minimising the harms experienced by young people during a critical period of their development, whilst also supporting their access to benefits as well. It is a national challenge that requires national leadership and that's why we're working closely with the states and territories and taking strong action. In October, the Prime Minister asked First Ministers for their evidence and inputs on a number of areas, including the right age. And as the Prime Minister said, we are very pleased that First Ministers support our Government's world leading decision in this regard. We know that the welfare of children is a collective responsibility. It is heartening to see the Commonwealth and States working together and the broad support for the design principles in the legislation is one of those things. So collaboration to get this done is certainly one that is wholeheartedly felt across the States and Territories with the Commonwealth. We look forward to the expeditious passage of this and we will, as the Prime Minister said, be introducing this in the next sitting week.

PRIME MINISTER: I'll take questions on this firstly. I spoke too soon, before the wind came up, by the way. So I apologise for the fact it's not quite as warm as it was out there in the sun. Chloe.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on the privacy side of things that you did mention. What data are we going to all have to hand over to prove that we're over 16? Are you considering drivers licences, biometrics, MyGov accounts? And doesn't that sound like a recipe for data breach disaster?

MINISTER ROWLAND: Well firstly, we acknowledge that this is world leading and privacy is one of the key issues that does need to be addressed. And that's the very reason why there is a one year implementation period. It's also the very reason why this legislation will contain strong privacy protections. It's also one of the reasons why we have been conducting this age assurance trial. We know that the technologies are developing rapidly, but privacy must be paramount, including that of children. We should also be very clear about the realities. These platforms know about their users in in a way that no one else does. We also want to ensure that that technology is one that's capable of being accepted, of implemented and of being effective. So through our age assurance trial this will closely inform the implementation. But again, I just want to stress this is about protecting people. It is about striking the right balance between those protections and privacy. And I want to make very clear to the Australian people that the utmost support needs to be given to young people through implementation of these measures.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, Meta has already responded to this legislation saying that they think it would be more effective to go in at the app store level to impose age restrictions on Google and Apple app stores rather than going site by site to restrict it. Is that a method you'd consider or are you all in on the social media angle?

PRIME MINISTER: We think we've got the proposal right. We expect that there'll be some opposition to it. That's not surprising.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, how will you respond to any pushback from Elon Musk, given you've been pretty critical of him in the past. And are you concerned about his power under the Trump administration, whether that will hinder these laws?

PRIME MINISTER: We will always advocate Australia's national interest.

JOURNALIST: PM, what's your message to the tech platforms here? Because you've talked about penalties, but it's not clear how big those penalties will be and whether the penalties will be imposed per child.

PRIME MINISTER: My message is that social media has a social responsibility in order to have the social licence. Social media can be really positive, there's no question about that. The ability for us to communicate can be really very important, but we need to consider the downsides as well as the upsides of it. And I think it's in the interests of those organisations to accept those issues and to deal with them constructively.

JOURNALIST: Some of the other states beyond Tasmania have also said they would have initially preferred 14. Could you just talk us through your rationale for why you went with 16?

PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, all of the other states and I had one on one discussions. The Premier is away on trade at the moment, so Tasmania is represented by the new Deputy Premier, Guy Barnett, who was very constructive but just put forward his government's formal position, but said that they'd go out there and talk to people and consult in Tasmania further about this. All of the other Premiers and Chief Ministers in all of the jurisdictions expressed their support for where we have landed. We think it is the right thing to do. We know that when you look at the devastating impact that this has had on the lives of some young Australians, many of them are in that age of 14 and 15 and the consultation that's occurred has been substantial. This isn't an ideological point here and I didn't come to these issues with an endpoint in mind. We listened and we engaged - the social media forums that were held in Adelaide and Sydney, but the other extensive consultation that was held in other parts as well. The Victorian Premier spoke about the consultation that she had had. The Queensland Premier, of course it was his first meeting, and it was good to welcome Premier Crisafulli to the meeting. I spoke with him yesterday or the day before, in the last couple of days. And he obviously, as a new Premier, hasn't had the opportunity to get out there and consult as much as people who've been around for longer, but he was very supportive as well and was supportive of 16. I don't know if Michelle wants to add.

MINISTER ROWLAND: Yeah, the Prime Minister's absolutely right. But I guess the other issue to consider is, as we said, we were examining an age range of between 14 and 16. And I guess one of the starting points is where 13 is a notional entry point for a lot of these platforms, how much would 14 lift the dial? How much would 15 actually change the dial when it comes to those harms? There was a body of evidence presented from the UK about particular children's mental development around that time. So all this actually helped to inform the position that we arrived on and I'm pleased that National Cabinet sees the same.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, the Opposition was seeking clarity on whether some of the big platforms will get exemptions - TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram. Can you confirm today they won't be exempt from this?

MINISTER ROWLAND: They won't be exempt. They're in a range which is called age restricted services as defined under the legislation. Just as alcohol is an age restricted product, these are age restricted services. The exemptions framework operates on this basis and it was pleasing to see National Cabinet understood and endorsed this. We need to make sure that young people still have access to educational, to health needs, noting that a number of mental health services, for example, actually operate like platforms. So we want to make sure that young people can still access those. What would be a probable candidate to be considered under an exemptions framework, for example, is something like YouTube Kids. Whereas as I described yesterday, YouTube is likely to fall within that scope of age restricted services, YouTube Kids is a different product, but of course it would need to be balanced against a set of criteria. And I would point out that the instruments to enable eSafety to make those decisions, they would be disallowable instruments, so would actually be subject to review by the Parliament. But let's be very clear here, there is no out for the platforms here. We've been very clear that there are age restricted services and those commonly understood platforms like TikTok, X, Instagram, Facebook, they will all be age restricted services.

JOURNALIST: You spoke about this sending a social message. I just wonder what social message do you think it sends that a 10 year old will be able to be sent to prison but won't be able to open an Instagram account?

PRIME MINISTER: We're focused on this legislation that I have responsibility for. I have responsibility for this in showing national leadership and that's precisely what we're doing.

JOURNALIST: Just back on exemptions. Where will online gaming platforms fit into this? The kind that have online chat rooms that are quite popular, especially with teenage boys?

MINISTER ROWLAND: Well again, they will need to be considered whether they come under the remit of an age restricted service. But what would be excluded, for example if you're talking about pure gaming, is actually amongst those services that aren't in scope, as are messaging services. They are not in scope. But all of these individual ones would need to be considered against the criteria that would be set out in the legislation.

JOURNALIST: There's very few weeks of Parliament left between now and the election, I suspect and end of this year. You're going to put this legislation in a couple of weeks. You've got the aged care leg, you told caucus next fortnight, I think the Fee-Free TAFE. So a lot of these sort of newish measures. Have you reached a point where you're going to prioritise what you can do rather than what you can't do. So the housing bills, the Nature Positive, there's Future Made in Australia stuck in the Senate. I'm not saying you've given up on them, but are you prepared to let them, sort of, stall and pass what you can pass?

PRIME MINISTER: No we, you sort of have treaded the line of whether that's about this issue or not. You've done quite well, Phil. So I give you, I'm going to reward your creativity. We want the Senate to pass our legislation. What I find astonishing is that things are, as you say, blocked in the Senate. Such as Help to Buy, that all the crossbenchers, no one but the Coalition, I mean the Coalition don't seem to support people going into home ownership, but everyone else says they support it but want to talk about other things in order to vote for legislation they think is worthy. Future Made in Australia, I find it astonishing that a bill that's about making more things here in Australia and Australian jobs doesn't sail through the Senate in two minutes that it takes to have a division. The aged care legislation passed the House of Representatives yesterday, as did some of the other legislation, including Free TAFE, I think passed the House. I might be wrong with that, I was a bit busy over the last couple of days. But certainly, I'm not sure if that's been put yet, but we certainly want that to pass. You know, we want the Senate to pass our legislation and we'll be introducing a range of legislation as well in the last fortnight, as much of that we want passed. But some of that, of course, will be debated next year. Parliament's coming back in February, so we expect that to happen. The blocking of legislation by the Coalition and the Greens party that I call the Noalition is a representation that for many of the people who voted for the Greens political party, I think expect the Greens political party to actually vote for legislation that they say they support. And they say they support a range of those measures. Why don't they vote for it? And I think people will increasingly question -

JOURNALIST: Your position is final on those bills?

PRIME MINISTER: Our position is final. On Help to Buy, we very clearly have put forward that. On our environmental legislation, we have put forward practical suggestions, including ones that I believe should have the support of the Coalition, that had the support of industry. They're saying they want to vote, they want this legislation in place because it will provide better environmental protection and better certainty for business. Business are saying they want it. The Senate should pass it. On this issue still?

JOURNALIST: Thanks, Prime Minister. So you can't question the intent of these social media bans, but kids are pretty tech savvy. They'll find ways around this, you know, VPNs, perhaps using their parents accounts, those sorts of things. Have you taken that into consideration and do you think these laws will actually work?

PRIME MINISTER: We think these laws will make a real positive difference. We say up front, and the example I use is that we ban alcohol for under 18s for purchasing. But this weekend, like most weekends, I'm sure there will be an example of someone under the age of 18 getting access to alcohol. It doesn't mean that you walk away from society establishing those laws. It doesn't mean that you say, 'oh well, it's all too hard, let's, you know, let it rip'. And that is what we are doing here, is making sure that we put in place laws that will make a difference. The last one on this and then -

JOURNALIST: Thanks, Prime Minister. Just thinking about the Greens, the concerns they've raised about this Bill. You know, there won't be another Greta Thunberg ever again who organises online. Maybe there won't be a future young Anthony Albanese who, you know, builds a movement online. What sort of -

PRIME MINISTER: I assure you that I did not build my political career online -

JOURNALIST: You were too early -

PRIME MINISTER: But thank you for the compliment of suggesting that these things were around when I was getting active politically. And that's to the point. I organised, one of my first activities was when, I've spoken about this, when conservatives got control of the Sydney City Council and wanted to sell the house that me and my mum lived in. You know what we did? We went out and we talked to people. We didn't do anything online because it didn't exist. We went out, we got petitions, we organised meetings and we engaged with other human beings and we defeated that proposal. We defeated it by organising in an old fashioned way. And guess what? We built relationships, real relationships while we were doing it. I want people to build real relationships, not just to engage with people who they don't know who they actually are, which is one of the issues with things online as well. So I'm pleased with the analogy. I thank you for thinking I'm much younger than I am. And now I'll take a couple of questions on other things.

JOURNALIST: PM, one of the takeout's from the US election is that populism seems to be resonating with voters. Do you think voters here are interested in populist messaging or perhaps some stronger leadership like hard man leadership, like Donald Trump?

PRIME MINISTER: Look, what we're focused on is making a positive difference. We are focused on making sure that we deal with some of the challenges that are there in society, both short term and longer term. In the shorter term, we've had a global spike in inflation and we've been dealing with ensuring that inflation we have halved, had a 6 in front of it now down to 2.8. We've done that whilst we provide cost of living relief for people - whether it's Cheaper Child Care, the billion dollars that people have saved on Cheaper Medicines, Energy Bill Relief for every household, a tax cut for every taxpayer. Making sure at the same time we've done it in a way where a million jobs have been created since I was elected Prime Minister. In addition to that, we're very conscious about the issue of equity. So that's why we changed the tax cuts from just giving Michelle and myself and most of you here the great benefit of those tax cuts, to making sure that no one was left behind, that everyone got a tax cut. That's why our industrial relations legislation, Same Job, Same Pay, the provisions to make casualisations definitions clearer. Making sure that we put in submissions about the minimum wage not once, not twice, but three times - making a difference so real wages are rising again. And you know, the fact is the former government had wage suppression as a key feature of their economic architecture. These are things that my government are dealing with. In the short term, dealing with that inflationary pressure, but in the long term making structural changes so that people aren't left behind and so that people aren't held back. And just last Sunday, the provision that we made of three significant changes - 20 per cent cut in the student debt level. Making sure that we change as well that when paying back kicks in of HECS or HELP as it's now called, from $54,000 up to $67,000. Making sure that every graduate will benefit from those changes by an average of $5500. At the same time entrenching Free TAFE in the system. Now there are some who argue, and I've seen an op-ed by someone here in recent days questioning the economics of that. I tell you what creates an economic issue and a gap between the economy and people - that's people not understanding that the economy needs to work for people, not the other way around. That's my government's approach and that will continue to be the guiding principle. No one held back, no one left behind.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what is your response to constitutional law experts saying the migration legislation introduced yesterday will be struck down and is just a delaying tactic. And which third countries do you anticipate will take the non-citizens off your hands?

PRIME MINISTER: Lawyers have lots of opinions and lawyers obviously had opinions about our legislation before the High Court made the decision that they did. Look, we hope, I think the real question in response to your question is will the Coalition support our legislation and make our third country removal powers more effective? I hope that they do.

JOURNALIST: On Wednesday, Bridget McKenzie disclosed 16 flight upgrades that she'd received over the years over the last four parliaments. Obviously there's well known rules around the disclosure register, how much time you have to give those updates, I think it's 35 days in the Senate. A lot of politicians across the Parliament make those disclosures well within the time frames. Many don't -

PRIME MINISTER: I hope you note that I do.

JOURNALIST: That wasn't going to be my question, but what is the point of having these rules if they're not going to be enforced? I guess my question to you would be, do the rules need to be changed? Do the rules need to be enforced better if there are these instances of politicians regularly missing these deadlines on what is a pretty basic and important accountability tool?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, I note that I have complied. And for all of the words written about these issues, there hasn't been one issue raised that hasn't been a direct result of a declaration that I've made going back to last century. Literally going back to last century. So I think with regard to Senator McKenzie, she needs to explain this quite clearly. And Peter Dutton needs to explain as well the gap between his rhetoric and the reality.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, do you agree with Andrew Shearer's assessment that China is helping to kill innocent Ukrainians in its support of Russia? And are you concerned about an emerging axis between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea?

PRIME MINISTER: Look, our position is very clear that we oppose Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. We have consistently provided our support to the people of Ukraine, led so ably by President Zelenskyy and the courage that they've shown. Just in the last week, we've announced additional support. And I did see the Ambassador here in recent days at the ACCI conference dinner that I spoke at on Wednesday night. And he once again came and thanked Australia for the support that we were providing.

JOURNALIST: Thanks for the second question. So, Wilkie is standing up this morning with a group of faith leaders urging you to -

PRIME MINISTER: Who, sorry?

JOURNALIST: Andrew Wilkie, sorry. Andrew Wilkie urging you to consider a conscience vote on the gambling issue. Is that something you've considered? And if the answer was no, what's the thinking behind that?

PRIME MINISTER: Oh look, we determine our government's position and we do that through our normal processes. That's the way that we operate. I haven't seen what Andrew Wilkie's done, but you know, Andrew Wilkie, I respect his position. He's had it consistently in the entire time he's been in Parliament. Thanks very much.

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