My thanks to the member for Bradfield for bringing on this very important discussion and to the member for Kooyong for highlighting the advocacy of the member for Indi. I know, as we all expressed yesterday, how much we all want to see the member for Indi in the place of that cockatoo just there. What happened to the member for Indi was horrific. It shouldn't have happened to anyone in our community. There is no doubt that the temperature of our political debate and the temperature of our national debate has risen in recent years. We all feel that in here, and we all have a responsibility to do our part in trying to bring that down. We can agree to disagree with respect. We can agree that we will not always see eye to eye on political issues, but we can do so in a way that is civil and allows us to still see our common humanity and our common connections of community and country, the things that the member for Indi advocated for and that I know so many of us bring to this place when we do come here to do our work and to have our debates.

I also know that it's not just members of parliament who feel this increase in the temperature. We see it when we walk into our shopping centres with the signs that say: 'Please treat our staff with respect. People are here to work.' This is happening across our community—that frontline workers are facing too much abuse and, unfortunately, potential violence. So, as I said, the responsibility is on all of us.

I have noticed in my seven years now in this place a change in the way that conversations happen. I used to find that, when I had a disagreement or when someone came to me with a point of view that was different to, say, mine or my political party's or the government's point of view, we could have a conversation about that. We might, at the end of that conversation, agree to disagree, but we would both walk away knowing that we had respected each other. What I tend to find happens too often now is that people come to me not to have a conversation but to deliver to me what they've made their mind up on. It seems to me that that's because they've already had the conversation. They've had the conversation on their phone, in their algorithm. They're not looking to have the conversation with me or another member of parliament. They're not even looking to have a physical conversation with another member of our community. They've been pushed by an algorithm into a certain point of view that gets reinforced over and over again.

We know that too often these algorithms are pushing people to extreme points of view. That is what drives engagement on these platforms. That is where people are being pushed in their opinions and how they come to then engage with us and, more broadly, with the community. That is why I think it is so important that we do have a digital duty of care in this country, and that is why this government is bringing this forward. We cannot continue to have foreign owned tech companies profiting off spreading division in our communities, and that is what is happening at the moment. We have tech billionaires who are feeding discontent across our community. It is on all of us to act on this. I'm very aware that legislation alone won't prevent political violence, but we must hold these platforms to account.

I am also very aware that the need for mental health support for many in our community is real and that both federal and state governments are investing in this space. But I very much hear the words of the member for Indi and others when they say that there are people in regional communities and elsewhere who are still missing out on the support they should get in this space. We do need to be aware that, again, sometimes the people who are presenting to us, the people who are presenting to our offices, come with complex lives. They come with many things that are coming at them that they want to talk to us about. We hope we can have those conversations in safety. We hope our staff can have those conversations in safety. But we must also have systems set up to support people—mental health systems and systems that allow people to live lives free of poverty so that they can come and have those conversations with us in a respectful way. Improving public discourse and improving safety—that is something that matters to all of us in this place. It matters to our country. We have a dear friend and colleague who is suffering at the moment and who has a long road back to being here with us. We all want to see her back. We all want to make sure that we are taking this moment to improve how we come together as a country and as communities.