Melissa McIntosh (Lindsay, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Women) Share this | Hansard source

I'm here to remind the government of some of the commitments it made to the Australian people at the election. One of these I was reminded of when a local school came to see me—lovely young kids—is something that you agree with opposite. We came to parliament in agreement to protect kids online from bullying and inappropriate content. It doesn't take much to get a reminder when you read a story about a child who, unfortunately, has taken their own life because of bullying online. It's a reminder of why we had a bipartisan commitment to protect Australian children online, because of these harrowing and distressing stories. I want to encourage the government to make a decision on which platforms are in or out. Australian families are waiting; those platforms are waiting too. There's a 10 December deadline looming, and we have to remember that the reason why we're all doing this is not for the tech platforms but to protect Australian children.

I want to remind the government, as well, that they made some other commitments around protecting kids online. They announced a digital duty of care, but this hasn't gone anywhere. They've committed to the regions to make telecommunications better, but we haven't heard anything from them on that. Also, they've got a commitment to do something about gambling harm online, a major commitment to the Australian people. They should get on with the job.

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