Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today is a good day. It's not very often that you can say that in opposition, but today is a good day. Why is it a good day? It's because the government introduced a bill today which will change the lives of many young Australians and their families. This might sound strange coming from an opposition member, but this is something I've been very passionate about for many years.

In 2018, I hadn't been in this place very long. Most of us would remember the day when young Dolly Everett took her life. Dolly Everett was a happy young teenager. I think she was a poster girl for R. M. Williams. The world was her oyster. She was the embodiment of a successful young teenage girl. But she was subjected to relentless bullying, and sadly, in 2018—sadly is not the word; there's no adjective that suitably describes what happened—she took her own life, tragically.

As someone who has walked that mental health path as a dad, I was incredibly moved by her passing. I thought, 'What can I do about this?' I ended up convening a meeting with DIGI in Sydney. DIGI is a group of all of the major electronic platforms including Google, Meta—although, it wasn't Meta back then—and other social media platforms. We talked about what happened with Dolly and how we could put steps in place to try to ensure that Dolly would be the last. I think I will remember that meeting in Sydney for the rest of my life, because I walked out of it feeling so angry. I felt that I had just been transported back in time and that I had met with big tobacco in the 1960s and 1970s, because the responses that I was getting to my questions were: 'It's all good. We've got this under control. We're doing everything we can.' I walked out of that meeting feeling so angry that these people were either wilfully blind or being obstructionist. It was probably more that they were being obstructionist.

So I started a campaign. I felt so aggrieved on behalf of Dolly's family and every family that is undergoing or has undergone the sort of relentless stress that has come about by the effects of social media on their young people. We know from English studies that, in fact, many parents sign up their kids to social media platforms before they even turn the required age of 13. That had to stop.

That had to stop. I was incredibly pleased when the Leader of the Opposition took up this cudgel more than 12 months ago and announced that he would support in the first 100 days of a coalition government a trial for age verification for social media. We then came out in July of this year and said that, if we were elected, we would push and legislate for a minimum age of 16 for social media. Peter Dutton has led from the front on this.

The bill, as I have had an opportunity to read, is not perfect, but I welcome it. The provision of a legislated duty of care will ensure that these platforms have nowhere to run, because there will be lawyers out there that will now, when this bill is passed, be able to sue on behalf of their clients. (Time expired)

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