ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good morning.
STUDENTS: Good morning.
PRIME MINISTER: You can do better than that. Good morning.
STUDENTS: Good morning.
ANIKA WELLS, MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS: Good morning, PM.
PRIME MINISTER: Anika Wells is the Minister for Communications, and I'm the Prime Minister, and welcome to Parliament House.
STUDENT: Good morning, Prime Minister. My name is Shashank. How will this delay be upheld, and what measures are in place to prevent people from bypassing the security systems and creating fake accounts?
PRIME MINISTER: The responsibility is on the social media companies. And if they don't do their best endeavours, then there'll be considerable fines, up to almost $50 million for breaches. And already, what we've seen is a range of social media companies announce that they're getting even ahead of December 10, in advance. So, we're confident that this will work.
STUDENT: My name is Charlotte. Bullying is bigger than social media. What measures are in place to protect those being bullied on games, messages, or WhatsApp? Or even face to face?
PRIME MINISTER: Our Education Minister, Jason Clare, is really implementing a National Plan to Address Bullying, and we have an Anti-Bullying Rapid Review, and that recommends that schools need to respond within two school days to a complaint or incident which is there. So, if we're going to properly tackle bullying, we need to have a really comprehensive approach and nip it in the bud early.
STUDENT: Hello. My name is Ahmed, and my question for you today is what processes were used to gather the perspectives of young people under 16 before developing this policy?
MINISTER WELLS: The eSafety Commission, which you might have come across so far in your time at school, it was the world first for Australia to have an independent eSafety Commission, and they have a Youth Advisory Council, and that's existed well before this policy. That Youth Advisory Council does things like help with policy design, gives feedback on how that experience might play out in your world. The Council has people from the ages of 13 to 24, they come from all different parts of the country, all different backgrounds and experiences. So, they will continue to advise the eSafety Commissioner on program design. And we've also got a two-year survey that we're going to track from 10 December about how this is rolled out, so we know what we need to do to make it better.
STUDENT: Hello. My name is Sean. Many young people heavily rely on online spaces to escape bullying or unsafe home environments. How does the Government plan to ensure continued access to online mental health communities and support networks?
MINISTER WELLS: We've been doing a bit of work with four major mental health peak bodies. With the eSafety Commission, they've informed this work. And then a couple of weeks ago, along with the Assistant Minister for Mental Health, we held a roundtable of 20 different mental health groups, advocacy bodies, who look after young people, particularly in their mental health, and we talked through what the changes are, what they're going to look like, and how everyone's preparing their spaces, their platforms. There's apps that exist that you can go on instead of social media come 10 December to help you with this, and they've all gone away and done their homework about how they can make this as easy as possible for you to transition. And we'll absolutely be looking at that as part of our two-year survey.
STUDENT: Good morning. My name is Mia. Our careers in ten years will look very different to those of our parents, and with the delay of social media, will this impact young children wanting a career in the digital industry, or those who are already online entrepreneurs?
PRIME MINISTER: You certainly aren't going to be disadvantaged. The evidence is actually the opposite, that by stopping the negative impact of social media, people will be much more comfortable engaging in digital activity as well, because it will be doing it in a way that is safer. And so, it won't stop you engaging in a whole range of research. It certainly won't stop you doing in school, the sort of digital education that will enable you to have a career in the new economy as well.
STUDENT: Hi. My name is Jayden. There are obviously those that disagree with this decision and feel their agency has been taken away. What messages would you give to provide reassurance to those that feel this way?
PRIME MINISTER: Two points I would make. One is this has support across the Parliament, which is very good. Often in this building, people don't always agree with each other. You might have noticed. Second point is, this hasn't come from us. This isn't our idea. It's actually come from young people. It's come from parents. It's come from the grassroots, who've had campaigns on this and have really got organised. And as a result, we've listened. And my job as Prime Minister is to listen and act, and that is what we are doing. And I'm sure that when people look back on December 10, they're going to say, 'gee, that was the right thing to do, and we're glad that it happened'. I think it'll be really positive, and it'll be really a proud moment for Australia to show that Australia is showing leadership.