Jason Clare says social media ‘cesspit’ needs a technological fix to protect children
The education minister, Jason Clare, has said stricter regulations on social media for teenagers had bipartisan support.
Speaking to Channel 7’s Sunrise, Clare called social media a “cesspit”, and added that Labor’s age verification trial would be the first step to protecting young people.
I think we all agree that social media’s a cesspit. We all agree we don’t want our kids on it. It’s about how do you do it?
This should be something where the Labor party and the Liberal party can work together.
You have mums and dads getting kids ready for school. Anyone with a child from 5-15 is worried about it.
They don’t need us having a fight about this. They want to hear we’re working together.
We want to make sure it is bulletproof, that we have the right sort of technological fix here that our kids aren’t exposed to some of the awfulness we see on social media.
Key events
Sussan Ley says it is ‘disgusting’ how social media companies profit from accounts of children
Sussan Ley says the Coalition will look to compel social media companies to introduce age verification for children under the age of 16, if the opposition wins the next election.
The deputy opposition leader, appearing on Channel 7’s Sunrise, backed Peter Dutton who yesterday said he’d take the policy to the election. Ley said:
That was strong, decisive leadership we saw from Peter Dutton yesterday on an issue that is personal to him – protecting kids when he was a policeman, protecting kids online and protecting kids when he was home affairs minister and passing laws to do that.
The last thing we want to hear is the Labor party start to say it is all too hard. We have to push through this.
The tech companies, when asked to do this, under a legal framework, will find a way … I don’t think they are saying they can’t do it. I think it’s saying they’re reluctant to do it. What they’re doing is actually profiting off the social media accounts of our kids. That is disgusting.
Pro-Palestine ‘protest parade’ to descend on offices of three Labor MPs in Melbourne
Darebin For Palestine, the community organising group behind pro-Palestinian protests targeting Labor MPs in Victoria, says it will defy the PM’s directions and continue to apply pressure.
In a statement this morning, the group said they intend to target the offices of three local MPs on Saturday as part of a mass demonstration that they’re calling a “protest parade”.
The three MPs are the state member for Preston, Nathan Lambert, the federal member for Cooper, Ged Kearney, and the state member for Northcote, Kat Theophanous.
The group expects the protest to take “several hours”, marching from Lambert’s office in Preston to Theophanous’s office in Northcote.
Jess Gordon, one of the rally organisers, said some constituents were “furious” with Labor for their position on Israel’s war on Gaza.
They are fed up with state and federal Labor’s shameless ongoing military and economic support of the Israeli apartheid state and denial of what is clearly a textbook case of genocide.
Six more people arrested and charged over riot outside Wakeley church
Five men and a teenager have been arrested and charged with rioting offences as part of the investigation into the riot outside a church in Sydney’s south-west in April.
It brings the total number of people charged with offences related to the incident to 29, a result of Strike Force Dribs, which was established to look at the Wakeley incident.
A 41-year-old man, a 31-year-old man, a 29-year-old man, two 20-year-old men and a 17-year-old boy were all arrested and charged with rioting offences, including destroying/damaging property during public disorder and throwing a missile at a police officer at public disorder.
Jason Clare says social media ‘cesspit’ needs a technological fix to protect children
The education minister, Jason Clare, has said stricter regulations on social media for teenagers had bipartisan support.
Speaking to Channel 7’s Sunrise, Clare called social media a “cesspit”, and added that Labor’s age verification trial would be the first step to protecting young people.
I think we all agree that social media’s a cesspit. We all agree we don’t want our kids on it. It’s about how do you do it?
This should be something where the Labor party and the Liberal party can work together.
You have mums and dads getting kids ready for school. Anyone with a child from 5-15 is worried about it.
They don’t need us having a fight about this. They want to hear we’re working together.
We want to make sure it is bulletproof, that we have the right sort of technological fix here that our kids aren’t exposed to some of the awfulness we see on social media.
Melbourne shivers through coldest day in five years
Overnight, some areas of NSW and Victoria saw temperatures drop to their lowest maximum in years, with Melbourne shivering through its coldest day in five years.
Temperatures maxed out at only 10.1C in Victoria’s capital yesterday, but it was even colder in the NSW Riverina, where Griffith recorded maximum temperatures of only 9.2C, the town’s lowest maximum in eight years.
Australia’s south-east continues to face a prolonged spell of wintry weather, with temperatures today expected to remain below average across the region.
Good morning. Mostafa Rachwani with you to take you through the day’s news.
The consequences of Peter Dutton’s climate war – Full Story newsroom edition
If elected, the opposition leader Peter Dutton says he will abandon Australia’s 43% emissions reduction target for 2030.
The prime minister Anthony Albanese labeled his comments divisive, and climate experts say his position will put Australia in breach of the landmark Paris climate agreement.
Bridie Jabour speaks to editor-in-chief Lenore Taylor and climate and environment editor Adam Morton about the consequences of putting politics ahead of good climate policy.
Sydney’s Leichhardt Oval to get $40m for upgrades to crumbling facilities
Josh Butler
Sydney’s famous Leichhardt Oval will get $40m to upgrade its crumbling facilities, with the federal government joining state and local governments in a bid to rescue the football stadium.
Anthony Albanese will announce $20m of federal funding on Friday, with the Inner West council and New South Wales government to chip in another $10m each, to upgrade female change rooms and build new seating.
A home ground for the NRL’s Wests Tigers, as well as a hub for local sporting fixtures, Leichhardt Oval and its local supporters have been calling for new funding for some time.
“The Albanese government recognises the significant contribution Leichhardt Oval has made, and continues to make, to sport in Australia,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
“It is on track to host 120 sporting fixtures in 2024, including both men’s and women’s national rugby league matches and dozens of other sport events including women and girls’ soccer.”
The funding will support new female-friendly change rooms, an increased seating capacity of 3,000, and a new northern grandstand.
Sarah Basford Canales
More on that audit report on My Health Record:
The audit office found the Australian Digital Health Agency, which runs the My Health Record platform, had only been “partly effective” in adhering to government rules due to “poor” contract planning.
The audit office found exemptions in the contracting rules allowing agencies to offer contracts directly to favoured suppliers should only be used in “situations consistent with the condition (extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseen by the entity) and not in situations of poor or late planning”.
The Anao recommended the agency resolve the issues and improve their processes in time to offer a competitive tender process for the platform’s IT management and maintenance by the middle of next year.
The agency blamed the Covid-19 pandemic for some of its shortcomings, noting “system stability and reliability were priorities in procurement approaches taken”.
It accepted 12 of the Anao’s recommendations and agreed in principle to another.
IT contract for My Health Record platform balloons out from $47m to $746m
Sarah Basford Canales
An IT contract for the country’s My Health Record increased more than 14 times its original value over 10 years due to poor planning, a scathing audit report has found.
The Australian National Audit Office, in its probe into contracts for the national digital health program, found a contract with Accenture grew from $47m in 2012 to its current value of $740m because the agency had failed to adequately plan for its ongoing maintenance needs and assess the contract’s value for money.
The digital database was created in 2012 as a tool for patients, doctors and specialists to share patient history, X-rays, prescriptions and other medical information with ease. Around $2bn has been spent on the platform.
The audit report, released on Wednesday, showed the original contract with Accenture was for $47m over two years to create the platform’s IT infrastructure. It had been amended 21 times between 2012 and 2017, growing to $506m.
It was then varied a further six times between 2018 and 2023, ballooning to $746m.
Bird flu spreads to sixth Victorian farm
Bird flu has been detected at a sixth Victorian farm which was already in quarantine, Australia Associated Press reports.
The case of avian influenza (H7N3) was confirmed at a property in the Golden Plains shire, 200km south-west of Melbourne, Agriculture Victoria said last night.
All ducks at the property will be culled under veterinary supervision, with the site cleaned and cleared of the infection.
The duck farm, which is in the current restricted area, produces commercial eggs and meat.
Victoria’s chief veterinary officer, Graeme Cooke, said the detection isn’t wholly unexpected due to the farm’s proximity to other impacted sites.
“We have established restricted and control areas in proximity to existing IPs which has assisted us in limiting the spread and quickly detecting the sixth IP through comprehensive surveillance activities,” Dr Cooke said.
“It’s a difficult time for our farmers and we’re making sure mental health support is available and eligible producers can access compensation.”
UK Labour ‘fully committed’ to Aukus pact
Daniel Hurst
The UK government would remain “fully committed” to the Aukus pact if Labour wins next month’s election.
Labour – which enjoys a significant lead in the opinion polls – released its manifesto last night. The section on the UK’s place in the world includes this passage:
Labour is fully committed to Aukus, the trilateral security partnership with Australia and the United States. We will ensure it delivers its full economic as well as security potential, increasing jobs and investment in communities across the UK.
The manifesto also promises that a Labour in the UK would “bring a long-term and strategic approach to managing our relations” with China, adding:
We will co-operate where we can, compete where we need to, and challenge where we must.
This has echoes of the Australian government’s refrain on China that “We will cooperate where we can, disagree where we must and engage in our national interest”.
The UK Labour party also says it is “committed to recognising a Palestinian state as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution with a safe and secure Israel alongside a viable and sovereign Palestinian state”.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our final news blog of the week. I’m Martin Farrer and I’m here to bring you the best of the morning stories before Mostafa Rachwani sets up.
Our top story this morning is an exclusive revealing that Queensland’s commitment to new laws to prevent faith-based schools from discriminating against gay teachers is being sacrificed as part of the Labor government’s electoral calculus. Advocates say the decision to shelve new anti-discrimination laws will leave women fleeing domestic violence, people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community at risk.
The big story of the week has been Peter Dutton’s plan to scrap the Coalition’s commitment to the government’s 2030 emissions target, thus reigniting the “climate wars”. Our political editor, Karen Middleton, writes today about how the bad-tempered exchanges between Anthony Albanese and Dutton about the policy show both sides are “stress-testing” their messaging ahead of next year’s election.
Immunisation rates are lagging in Australia’s most vulnerable populations – the very young and old – with experts blaming practical barriers as well as the misinformation and vaccine hesitancy that took off during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The National Audit Office has issued a scathing report on a government IT contract that ballooned from $47m to $740m due to bad planning. More on that soon.
And bird flu has been found at a sixth farm in Victoria. Agriculture Victoria said last night the case of Avian influenza (H7N3) was confirmed at a property in the Golden Plains shire, 200km south-west of Melbourne. More coming up.