STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator STEWART (Victoria) (13:44): Every day, First Nations people go online and cop racism. For our mob, racism has always been a part of everyday life. What's changed is that social media makes it worse and puts it right in front of our kids.

I chair the racism inquiry, and I've heard these stories firsthand. Person after person told us the online world isn't safe for our mob—especially not for our young ones. Their stories were really heartbreaking to hear, but they didn't surprise me.

And it doesn't stay online. The hate spills into the real world. It follows our people into the street, the schoolyard and the workplace, and too often it turns into violence.

It's not just anonymous trolls either; this week we've seen One Nation at it again, the same racism they've peddled for decades. Whether it comes from trolls online or someone in this building, it is the same hate. And it's not abstract to me; I myself am somebody who's copped it.

So what are the platforms doing about any of this? Meta told the inquiry they don't have a single person checking content here in Australia. Others, like X, were invited to participate but chose not to attend.

When a company admits it has no-one here protecting our mob from that hate, it tells you everything. There's no place for racism and hate in this country, on- or offline. Our mob deserve more than to feel safe; they deserve to be safe.

These are some of the most powerful companies in the world. The idea that they can't find one person to keep our mob safe here isn't about money. It's about choice, and, every day they choose not to, it's a kid lying on the couch, phone in hand, scrolling online for a laugh but instead reading that their people don't belong.

Enough is enough. It's time that these platforms were held to account. Leaving them to police themselves isn't working.

(Time expired)