Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) | Hansard source

The minister was outraged by the simple act taken by the Senate last night to refer the legislation to the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee for investigation, with a reporting date in August—a three-month inquiry—acting like we, working with their bedfellows in the Greens, personally put Australian children at risk because we dared to demand a modicum of scrutiny for this legislation. We dared to demand an investigation into whether the flimsy measures contained in the bill will, in fact, do what we all want to see—meaningful barriers between young people and the most dangerous aspects of social media to mitigate its negative effect on mental health and wellbeing, to close it down as a means of transmission for child sexual abuse material and to block it as a vector for extremism.

A few days ago, I gave my speech in the second reading debate on the government's strengthening bill, and in it I provided a brief history lesson for those on the other side, reminding them that they failed repeatedly to pick up and act on our determination to do something about the harm social media was doing to young Australians—harm I had raised in my maiden speech in September 2022, harm which is detailed repeatedly in the books of Jean Twenge and Jonathan Haidt and by local researchers like Brad Marshall, harm which the then leader of the opposition committed to investigate back in April 2024 and then to act on a few days later, and harm the premiers of New South Wales and South Australia had agreed they would act on by mid-2024, frustrated by this government's failure to actually act.

When the Prime Minister did finally relent and agreed this government would act, the draft legislation was introduced into this place in a rush, and the Senate was given four days to conduct an inquiry—four days. And now this government dares to throw a hissy fit because the Senate demands a three-month inquiry. 'Trust us,' the government says. 'Trust us. We failed the first time, but this time we won't. You don't need an inquiry. You don't need to test the efficacy.' Well, guess what? Trusting you didn't pay off last time. Australia ended up with a legislative framework that didn't do the job.

See this speech in context