Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I think this is a domain where government regulation and the right public policy settings do require consideration by this parliament, by parliaments, by the community and by the government. I don't think the introduction of legislation imposing age limits to protect children is in place of or should be excluded by the points you raise. We are obviously aware of Meta's decision to walk away from commercial deals in relation to Meta's decision and announcement that it will no longer pay Australian news organisations for news content. Obviously, we all want healthy, sustainable and diverse news media in Australia. That is important for our democracy and includes working out how we ensure that large digital platforms utilise reasonable news information and that these are under fair and equitable arrangements with the creators of content.

We have been very clear that we think that what Meta has done is a dereliction of its responsibilities to Australian users. The government of course has established the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society. This backdrop is one of the reasons for that decision. We do believe that Australians should continue to have access to public interest journalism, including on social media, and we hope that, taking into account the work the committee does—and I'm aware of your interest in this, Senator—we can work out what is the best way forward on this issue.