HOST: Well, it's been a huge 24 hours in Australia, all eyes globally watching us as our ban was implemented, under sixteens are no longer on social media. And joining us to talk about this is our Prime Minister himself, Anthony Albanese.
HOST: Prime Minister, welcome back to the show.
ANTHONY ALBANESE,PRIME MINISTER: Good morning team. Glad to be with you.
HOST: Do you know what? It's great to be Australian at the moment, because this ban has come into place to protect our children and lots of parents are very grateful and thankful for this. Prime Minister, we're 24 hours in, how's it going? All the social media platforms, are they all on board?
PRIME MINISTER: They are all complying. Of course it isn't smooth. You can't in one day switch off over a million accounts across the board. But it is happening. They will all have to report in their figures on who they had on, on 9 December, and who they had on today, 11 December. And then every month they'll have to report in. So, this will be difficult and already I think it's a success because parents are having the discussions with their teens and with their young ones who aren't on social media yet and won't be until they're 16. Teachers will be having discussions with their students today. And this is just us calling time on it for our kids. We know that social media is causing social harm and this will be a major change. The world is watching. And I think we should be really proud as Australians that this is a change that came from, particularly from parents who'd lost their sons or daughters who channelled what is a dreadful personal tragedy into this campaign and saying that they didn't want other parents to go through what they had experienced that trauma. So, the courage that they showed, I think has been followed up by Australian parents, I think overwhelmingly, saying yes, this has given us back some power. And young people themselves who are I think quite welcoming of some of the pressure that's been taken off them, that's put on them by social media.
HOST: And peer pressure. And I agree, Prime Minister, a lot of people say, well, it's up to the parents. And as a parent, yes we can absolutely do that, but you can't take away the peer pressure, what's happening socially for those kids. And now everybody is in the same boat and it does absolutely alleviate that from the children and the parents. But what you just mentioned yesterday, I thought that was so moving, seeing a grid of all the children's lives who have been lost. And that hit home like nothing else. And I thought, oh, how can we not protect our children? And I think the Government have done absolutely the right thing.
HOST: Yeah, I think it's a great thing.
HOST: You mentioned world leaders. Have any reached out yet? I know there are a lot that are eagerly watching this to see how it rolls out.
PRIME MINISTER: They sure have. And Malaysia will commence a change on 1 January. Indonesia are making changes. The European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, who's the head of the European Union, will be visiting here next year. And they've already passed a motion through the equivalent, the European Parliament there, about this issue. New Zealand have indicated they'll be following our lead. So, this is a proud Australian moment where we're leading the world, but the world is not only watching, they'll be following Australia's lead here. And if it was easy, someone would've done it before.
HOST: If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, Albo. That's the old saying.
PRIME MINISTER: Exactly. And technology has been fantastic. Obviously, it's liberating in so many ways, but in other ways as well. It can tie us down. Life was a bit more simple when people would go out and just kick the footy and kids would play with each other and communicate with each other as well. And that's one of the things that, I got asked a question yesterday about, oh won't this lead to more isolation? Well, there's nothing more isolating than a 13 or 14-year-old in their bedroom looking, scrolling at their phone, looking at messages. They dunno who it actually is. We've seen grooming and dangerous activity online as well. They dunno whether it's real or not these days with bots and what have you. Artificial intelligence. And we want kids to have their childhood and we want parents to have a bit of peace of mind as well, to not be so concerned about what their young ones are looking at online. I dunno if any of you have seen that at the drama set in the UK, Adolescence.
HOST: Yeah, of course. Netflix.
PRIME MINISTER: Incredibly powerful, about these parents who are shocked about what happens. I won't give away the --
HOST: No spoilers. Hey, you speak about being tied down Albo. Congratulations on getting hitched, mate. We haven't spoke to you since.
HOST: Congratulations!
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. No, it was great that we were able to pull it off quietly. And in front of family and friends and it was just lovely and people were fantastic as well. The media were great, respected the occasion. It was terrific. It was lovely. Well, we were a bit worried, at 12 o'clock, it was pouring down. It was bucketing down.
HOST: That's good luck.
PRIME MINISTER: I'm told that that's the case. Jodie didn't think it was good luck at 12 o'clock, I can tell you. She was in a state of despair about it all. I was completely gilding the lily by saying, oh, it's just sprinkling when it was actually pouring. But it was fantastic, fantastic day. And then we had a lovely four-day honeymoon.
HOST: Beautiful. Hope you paid for it.
PRIME MINISTER: Absolutely.
HOST: Now, let's speak to some more pressing issues. Mr Prime Minister. Now, Minister Anika Wells. Now, hasn't she been in the news lately? She's been travelling a lot on our money. Does she know what Zoom is?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, going to sporting events, you've been to a few AFL Grand finals, Fev.
HOST: Yeah, I've paid for it.
PRIME MINISTER: Yeah, but the premiers who are there, people who are there at the event -- she's the sports minister. It's not all that surprising that the sports minister is at a sporting event. She's referred these issues to the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority. That's appropriate that they have a look at it. It's at arm's length from me. I have no doubt that some other members or senators, I would assume, will probably do the same thing and that's appropriate. We have an arm's length authority that looks at all of this so that we're not seeing any judgement of our colleagues.
HOST: It is in the rules, but obviously the cost-of-living for Australians at the moment, like, wouldn't it be just nice if you just came out and go, yep, obviously it's in the rules, which you both have said, but I know with cost-of-living, the pub test, yeah, we probably shouldn't. Read the room a little bit and go, hey, I could have zoomed this and I could have zoomed that, but I didn't really need to go there because people are really struggling out there, bro.
PRIME MINISTER: Oh look, I get that completely. The idea that going to New York for a couple of days, there and back, is fun as someone who does that, went to Washington for under 48 hours a few weeks later to see President Trump. I've got to say that it's not laying on the beach [CROSSTALK]. So, it is work and it's hard. I get that there's an issue with public money and all of that, I get that. But that visit to New York was in my view, very important. That Australia showcased to the world -- so, it wasn't just the members, but families flew over as well, including Emma spoke at the event that was hosted. And that was the reason for the travel.
HOST: Now, as you just said, Prime Minister, such an important initiative. Australia, we're now world leaders with this, and I love that this is keeping the social media giants, the billionaires. I realised, they're becoming more billionaires than they were before. They're multibillionaires. Well, they don't get to ruin our kids' lives and futures and we're holding them accountable. So, Prime Minister, we are grateful for this and we will keep an eye on it because we want to make sure they all follow through. So, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
PRIME MINISTER: Thank you so much. And have a lovely Christmas, if I don't speak to you beforehand.
HOST: Merry Christmas. Prime Minister, thank you.
PRIME MINISTER: Cheers.