Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I didn't go to uni, thanks very much, member for Fisher. It's probably true to say I played with them for longer than kids would these days, but that's how I remember my life, and it was great. I try to instil that upon my three kids and my soon-to-be two grandchildren. That is what being a parent is about. These days, because of the fast-paced world in which we live, parents can't always monitor everything their kids are doing on their phones and on the internet. There are dreadful predators out there preying on these children. I think 16 is an adequate cut-off point. Yes, kids are very mature—much more mature than I ever was at 14 or 15. I think 16 is a good starting point.

As I said, there is a bit about this legislation that can be improved and, hopefully, will be improved. I appreciate that, once the bill is passed—and, let's be honest, it will be; it may be modified in the Senate, but it will be passed—it could be updated as we go on. Rest assured that whatever we decide in the House of Representatives—or later on in the Senate—is calling these big tech companies to account. They make trillions of dollars off the back of our kids, our young ones and vulnerable people in society. They should be answerable. They should be accountable. As the shadow communications minister quite correctly pointed out, they'll say, 'It's all too hard; identification is all too difficult,' and all these things. But I tell you what: they can do a whole lot of other things with their technology, and I think it's just the right and proper thing to do. Like I say, they'll make all sorts of excuses, but they're making a lot of money.

Going back to little Charlotte, she sent a photograph of herself crying to a friend and she wrote, 'I'm sorry.' Her friend, who knew Charlotte was distressed and being bullied at school, was frantic. 'Sorry for what?' she messaged before calling her repeatedly. 'Answer, please. Are you all right? Please tell me you're all right.' But Charlotte wasn't all right, and she ended her life that night. Many photographs of Charlotte have been published with her parents' consent, and, when you look at the photos of her, you just wonder why that life has been extinguished. Kelly O'Brien said her daughter will be with us wherever we go. Her parents have set up an online fundraiser for Kids Helpline, and that is a very good charity. If you can donate to it, please do. Her parents said they would never want us to be broken, in the wake of her 12-year-old daughter's suicide. At her funeral service, she was remembered as beautiful and kind. Of course she was. Every kid is. Even kids who are doing the tormenting and the bullying just need to be put on the straight and narrow. They need love like anybody else, but they also don't need to be subjected to what the internet often offers, and that is predators—people who would seek to do harm to them and who will groom them—and all sorts of nefarious websites and the like.

I know that, even on some of those gaming sites, there is a messaging service. We need to look at all of these aspects of the legislation. It's pleasing too that Snapchat will be included, as it should be, because, in the wrong hands, all of these social media platforms can lead to tragedy, be it Instagram, Facebook, X—formerly known as Twitter—or whatever the case might be. We do not want to see the sorts of tragic circumstances that the Daily Telegraph has so profoundly and alarmingly published in recent weeks and months.

I say again that this is important legislation. Not everybody will agree with it. People say that governments shouldn't be parenting our kids, and, in some aspects of that, I understand fully those parents' concerns, but our first priority as parents is to look after our kids and to provide a safe and healthy environment in which they can grow up. The first order of business for government is to protect Australian people per se and make sure they have the best possible society in which to live. This legislation helps to provide both.

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