QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Ms WELLS (Lilley—Minister for Sport and Minister for Communications) (14:14): I thank the member for Menzies for his question and for joining me at East Doncaster Secondary College to hear from students about their experiences online. For the last 20 years, tech companies have been running unregulated real-time user testing of their products on Australians, and, for the first time, Australia's digital duty of care will set basic safety standards for the digital services we use every day, just as we have for food, for cars and for kids' toys.
Our communities have been calling for this; experts have been calling for this; and, when we released the exposure draft on Tuesday, the Prime Minister and I were joined by headspace, calling for this, the Butterfly Foundation, calling for this, Project Rockit, calling for this, the Alannah & Madeline Foundation, calling for this, Teach Us Consent, calling for this, and teachers from the AEU calling on all of us to support the digital duty of care.
And what did these leading national organisations hear today from the Leader of the Opposition? 'No. No to your pleas.' They heard a straw-man argument about political censorship. The communities of those opposite have been calling for this; the member for Flinders has been calling for this; experts have been calling for this; and parents, most of all, have been calling for this.
The opposition leader knows this, because on Tuesday afternoon the opposition leader met with grieving parents—with Emma Mason and Mia Bannister, now known globally for their impressive advocacy despite the most horrific loss. They asked the opposition leader on Tuesday afternoon to put politics aside and to protect Australian kids. And what did they hear in response today? 'No.' The coalition haven't just said no; they have voted no.
They voted against the bill to improve Australia's social media minimum age laws just hours ago. The opposition had the opportunity to improve our social media minimum age laws. The opposition have chosen instead to fling their arms around One Nation and the platforms.
They should be ashamed of themselves. As we consult over the exposure draft and seek to introduce this bill to the parliament next month, I ask the coalition to reflect just what they're opposing in the interests of their own internals. They are opposing the protection of children from pornographic content online and the protection of children who are seeing content that encourages eating disorders and self-harm from the insidious harms AI chatbots are doing to our kids every single night; they are opposing the rights of adults not to have illegal content beamed into their eyeballs against their will; and they are opposing the right of adults to have a choice about what they see in their own feeds.
They are feverishly rebutting an argument that no-one is making. These are laws the whole parliament should support, and I urge them to do so. (Time expired) Honourable members interjecting— The SPEAKER: Order!
There was far too much noise during that answer. I'm not happy with the level of interjections. If this continues, there will be consequences for actions.