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

Senator HENDERSON (Victoria) (18:44): I too would call on you—I know you weren't the offender—on behalf of the government to apologise to the Senate for earlier comments and the campaign that was run primarily against the coalition in relation to our decision, along with those of the Greens and of others on the crossbench, to send this bill to a Senate inquiry.

I have to say I was particularly appalled by the Minister for Communications, Ms Wells, and the way that she pitted grieving parents in relation to our decision to send this to a Senate inquiry. As we subsequently heard in evidence in a Senate inquiry, every parent who tragically lost a child and who appeared before us made it very clear that more needed to be done to keep kids safe online and that this particular bill—and of course this was introduced a number of months ago—was not nearly good enough.

It's very surprising that these powers in the bill before Senate today, the government's amendment, were not in the original legislation, which shows and is further evidence of the rushed nature of the social media ban. So I too would say to the minister shame on you, Minister, for the disgraceful campaign that you ran primarily against the coalition. We received very strong support from many witnesses before the Senate inquiry in relation to the scrutiny and transparency of legislation being incredibly important.

The role of the Senate is to scrutinise legislation and to give Australians the opportunity to make submissions and for their voices to be heard. Shame on the minister for trying to shut that down. Of course, the great irony about all of this is that the government is now amending its own bill, which is a pretty glaring insight.

The government could not even get the original bill right, as it saw fit. So I would ask, Minister, on behalf of the government, to please make that apology. I also want to make a correction.

I made an error in relation to the Tech Council's statement. My apologies. The Tech Council of Australia has raised concerns about one of our amendments, but it is the amendment in relation to parental safety tools.

That's pretty disappointing, I have to say. We have been yelling from the rooftops, saying to Google, to Apple and to Microsoft, 'Give us these safety tools!' If there is some issue with the way that this amendment has been drafted, I have no issues with that matter being raised. But what I have an issue with is that these big tech giants have sat back and denied parents the opportunity to access these safety tools, and that is not good enough.

Companies such as Qoria—and Tim Levy, the CEO—who have given evidence a number of times in various committees, again gave evidence in our Senate inquiry and made it very clear that Australian kids were missing out because parents could not access these safety tools. What about if Apple and Google and Microsoft do the right thing and start being proactive? Apple has released some safety tools, but, to a large degree, these are still locked up.

These are locked up from third-party apps, and it is time that these very significant huge tech players that control so much of what happens on our devices—it is time that parents had access to the same safety tools which are available to large government departments and corporations.