QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister) (14:06): I thank the fabulous member for Sturt for her question—the best member Sturt's had for many, many decades, it's got to be said. Last year, Australia took world-leading action by banning children under the age of 16 from having social media accounts. Today we're taking those laws further to ensure they work as they were intended to.

We took action because the community said enough was enough. We would no longer let Australian kids be treated as commodities instead of children. I want to pay tribute to the parents who led that campaign—parents who'd lost their children and took that grief and channelled it into making a difference so that other parents wouldn't have to go through that deeply traumatic period which they did.

Our action is working. More than five million accounts have been removed or deactivated. Importantly, Australia has started a global movement, with more than 20 countries taking similar action.

But we know there's still more to do on online safety, and we're doing that today through releasing draft digital duty of care legislation for consultation. We're aiming at introducing that legislation when parliament comes back in October, but we want to get the full input of not just members of parliament but others as well. As part of this draft legislation, we're acting on algorithms with a landmark initiative: My Feed, My Way.

This isn't about giving government control; it's about giving people control. It's about putting choice back into the hands of Australians online. These are sensible reforms.

Today the minister and I were joined by representatives of so many different groups who have been concerned with the pressures that occur—whether it be body image, whether it be violence online or whether it be mental health issues—and who are supporting this change. These are really sensible reforms. They empower Australians to shape technology and social media for the better, instead of letting this new technology just shape us and who we are.

I hope it receives very broad support, and we're certainly up for discussion across this parliament, because we want this to work. We want it to be the best it can be, because it's absolutely vital that we don't duck from these big challenges. Big tech has a lot of power over people at the moment.

We want that power to be back in the hands of consumers—back in the hands of Australians.