STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator BABET (Victoria—United Australia Party Whip) (13:50): The government's social media ban has failed, not according to me but according to the evidence. Eighty-five per cent of under-16s in a recent study are still using the very platforms that this government supposedly banned them from using. So what does Labor do when one of its policies fails and fails miserably?

Does it admit it's wrong as it repeals the law? Does it trust and empower the parents to look after their own kids? Of course it doesn't.

What does it do? It reaches for more power—more powers for the eSafety Commissioner, more compulsory information gathering, more documents, more fines, more coercion. We're now talking about powers to summon people to compel them to answer questions under oath, weakening protections against self-incrimination and punishing noncompliance with massive fines or even jail—freaking jail.

And remember what the Prime Minister said in 2023 when he was asked, 'Mr Prime Minister, what would you do if you were a dictator?' What did he say? He said, 'I would ban social media.' He actually said that. Now, I thought he was joking, but it's not funny.

I don't think he was joking at all. In 2024 we moved an urgency motion in this place which sought to affirm that parental responsibility rests with—guess who—parents, not the freaking federal government. Only seven senators supported it out of 76.

Just think about that. This Senate overwhelmingly refused to affirm that parents should be responsible for their own children. You know what, parents?

Your kids do not belong to the state. You should set the boundaries. You should make the decisions.

When government policy fails, the answer is never more surveillance, more coercion and more power for these unelected bureaucrats in Canberra. The answer is really simple: empower parents. Put parents back in charge.

That's it. Get government out of our lives. We are all sick of this crap.