Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026

Senator GREEN (Queensland—Assistant Minister for Tourism, Assistant Minister for Pacific Island Affairs and Assistant Minister for Northern Australia) (18:39): I'm not really sure what you're referring to in terms of 'squawking'. I know that this is an important piece of legislation with urgency, which the eSafety Commissioner and parents have spoken about. You asked me about the timeline.

If the Senate had passed the bill urgently in July, the eSafety Commissioner would have had at least one, maybe two, tranches of information documents from social media platforms and information from age assurance companies by now. If we'd passed the bill, like Australian parents had asked, we would have introduced another bill to give the eSafety Commissioner examination powers.

We have always said that this law was the first of its kind in the world, and we were clear from the start that it would need to be updated throughout its implementation. We make no apologies for coming back to the Senate, increasing penalties and creating further powers to ensure that the laws passed by this parliament can be enforced and big tech companies are held to account.

The government will leave no stone unturned, making sure that the eSafety Commissioner has everything needed to hold these companies to account.