Meta concerned about ‘rushed’ social media ban
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has issued a statement on the under-16 social media ban.
As AAP reports, a spokesperson said that while it respected the decision by federal parliament, issues remained with how the ban would be enforced.
We are concerned about the process which rushed the legislation through while failing to properly consider the evidence, what industry already does to ensure age-appropriate experiences, and the voices of young people.
The task now turns to ensuring there is productive consultation on all rules associated with the bill to ensure a technically feasible outcome that does not place an onerous burden on parents and teens and a commitment that rules will be consistently applied across all social apps used by teens.
Age-verification trials on how young people would be stopped from accessing social media are still ongoing. The Meta spokesman said an option would be age verification through operating systems or app stores.
Key events
Kean warns of ‘vested interests’ detracting from renewables transition
The chair of the Climate Change Authority, Matt Kean, has responded to the latest modelling out this week showing energy bills could shrink by a fifth over the next decade amid the renewables transition.
In a post to X earlier this morning, Kean – a former NSW energy minister – said:
This Independent unbiased modelling out this week shows the energy transition to renewables “would lower total household energy expenditure by nearly $1,000 per year” in coming years. Don’t let the vested interests take them away from you.
Dozens of organisations pen open letter calling for focus on prevention and early intervention at NSW drug summit
Ahead of the drug summit in Sydney next week, more than 30 leaders from community, health and Aboriginal organisations are calling on the NSW government to prioritise prevention and early intervention.
The organisations have penned an open letter, saying the summit should include a holistic strategy including:
Increasing the number and capacity of NSW communities participating in place-based prevention of alcohol and other drugs related harm;
Developing and implementing targeted information and behaviour change programs and support for young people and their families.
The organisations including the Alcohol and Drug Foundation, Network of Alcohol and other Drugs Agencies, Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol Residential Rehabilitation Network, NSW Council of Social Service and the Matilda Centre.
The Alcohol and Drug Foundation CEO, Dr Erin Lalor, says a proactive and balanced strategy is needed.
Prevention efforts, especially those led by communities, play a powerful role in reducing harmful drug use by tackling the root causes at a local level. By investing in targeted programs, particularly for at-risk groups like youth in disadvantaged communities, we not only improve individual wellbeing, but also generate significant returns for our health and social systems; every dollar invested in prevention returns approximately $14.
Petra Stock More on the review into Parks Victoria
Continuing from our last post: Matt Ruchel said it was odd that the review mentioned customer satisfaction, given a report tabled in parliament – the same day – found 85.9% visitor satisfaction across all parks.
Ruchel said Parks Victoria had a huge task managing 4m hectares of public land, national and metropolitan parks amid pressures related to biodiversity, climate change, feral animals, weeds and increased visitors, and was doing so in the context of funding cuts. Jono La Nauze said:
The biggest question before the government is why it is chronically underfunding conservation in this state, including the management of national parks.
The review will be completed by March 2025, and will be overseen by the Victorian government with the support of Korda Mentha. Graeme Dear, chair of the Victorian Fisheries Authority, has been appointed as interim CEO.
Guardian Australia has asked the minister’s office about the reasons for the review and its terms of reference.
The review follows ongoing consultation on a proposed management plan for the Dyurrite Cultural Landscape (Mount Arapiles – Tooan state park), opposed by some in the rock climbing community. However, the issue was not mentioned by the minister when announcing the review.
Petra Stock Parks and environment organisations say they were blindsided by the Victorian government’s review into Parks Victoria, announced late on the last sitting day of state parliament.
The state’s environment minister, Steve Dimopoulos, ordered a “comprehensive review” of the statutory authority and announced the departure of Parks Victoria CEO Matthew Jackson.
In a statement, Dimopoulos said the review would focus on Parks Victoria’s priorities, and would “identify ways to reduce red tape, improve customer service and deliver better outcomes for Victorians”.
Matt Ruchel, executive director of the Victorian National Parks Association, said the announcement at 4pm yesterday came “completely out of the blue”.
We are deeply concerned this is a trojan horse for dismantling hard-won nature protections.
Environment Victoria’s CEO, Jono La Nauze, said the environment campaign organisation was also “blindsided”, along with many others in the conservation community.
“We have real questions about the motivation and the basis for this review,” La Nauze said, especially as the government had not provided any evidence suggesting issues or concerns with Parks Victoria.
Henry Belot Leaked sections of a 530-page report outlining an overhaul of New South Wales gambling policy have confirmed “a clear win” for the gambling industry, with the government urged not to further restrict poker machine operating hours.
This is despite the NSW government publishing independent research that confirms people who use poker machines after 2am are “experiencing significant negative consequences”.
When the draft proposal by executive members of a panel advising the government on gaming reform was first exposed by Guardian Australia, public health campaigners hoped other panellists would be able to see it removed or amended in the final report.
Several members of the panel have previously called for poker machine operating hours to be cut to reduce community harm. Members of the panel are unable to publicly comment on the report until its public release due to confidentiality agreements.
They include representatives for the biggest gaming venues in the state, machine manufacturers, NSW police, Wesley Mission, the NSW Council of Social Services, the United Workers Union, two academics and one person with lived experience.
Sections of the final report seen by Guardian Australia urge the government to “retain the minimum six-hour shutdown period, commencing no later than 4am”. This would allow poker machine venues to stay open from 10am to 4am.
Tim Costello, the chief advocate of the Alliance for Gambling Reform, has described that recommendation as ridiculous, given the scale of harm caused by poker machines.
That’s clearly an industry win.
The NSW government is now considering the final report.
Elias Visontay ACCC approves more Qatar Airways and Virgin flights
The competition watchdog has granted interim approvals for Qatar Airways’ plan to increase its flights between Australia and Doha as part of an alliance with Virgin Australia.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced it had granted interim authorisation for the two carriers’ plans to enter into an alliance, which allows the two carriers to begin marketing and selling tickets for the new 28 weekly return services from June 2025.
The agreement will see Virgin Australia, which has not owned any planes capable of long-haul flights since its pandemic-induced restructure, enter into a “wet lease” agreement with Qatar Airways, in which it leases not just the Middle-Eastern carrier’s aircraft but also its crew.
In effect, the authorisation via an Australian airline allows Qatar Airways to bypass the requirement for its government to secure increased bilateral air rights with Australia, more than a year after the Albanese government infamously shot down the carrier’s push for an additional 28 weekly flights in a decision that fuelled speculation about Qantas’ influence in Canberra.
The new services will be offered subject to final regulatory approval by the ACCC and other government bodies, meaning that if final approvals are not granted, customers who booked will be offered refunds or moved onto alternate services.
ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh said:
Having this court-enforceable undertaking that protects customers was important to our decision to allow Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways to start selling tickets now.
The proposed alliance is part of a broader move that will see Qatar Airways take a 25% minority ownership stake in Virgin Australia.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has issued a statement on the under-16 social media ban.
As AAP reports, a spokesperson said that while it respected the decision by federal parliament, issues remained with how the ban would be enforced.
We are concerned about the process which rushed the legislation through while failing to properly consider the evidence, what industry already does to ensure age-appropriate experiences, and the voices of young people.
The task now turns to ensuring there is productive consultation on all rules associated with the bill to ensure a technically feasible outcome that does not place an onerous burden on parents and teens and a commitment that rules will be consistently applied across all social apps used by teens.
Age-verification trials on how young people would be stopped from accessing social media are still ongoing. The Meta spokesman said an option would be age verification through operating systems or app stores.
Birth rate fears after NSW caps nation-first IVF subsidy
An Australian-first rebate aimed at making parenthood easier for thousands of couples will be limited within months, sparking fears the move will drive down already declining birth rates.
As AAP reports, more than 14,000 women have been able to receive a $2,000 cash rebate for IVF treatment since it was introduced as part of the then-Coalition NSW government’s women-focused budget in 2022.
But the state government will apply an income test on applicants from 19 February, with applicants needing to show they receive the family tax benefit, hold a government health care card or have an annual household income of $116,000 or less.
State opposition leader Mark Speakman said the income test equated to $58,000 per person – or about $25,000 less than the starting salary of a teacher – and was a “cruel, distressing blow for the thousands of women and their partners who were relying on this subsidy to support their dreams of having a family”.
Labor said the Coalition allocated $24m over four years for the scheme, but that money had run out in less than two. Premier Chris Minns told reporters:
We obviously want to help people, but the number of people that applied for the scheme was far beyond what the government could afford. I apologise for it, I know that a lot of families struggle, they want to have kids, they need help to do it [and] cost of living is obviously a big impact on family budgets.
How does Australia’s social media ban compare to laws in other countries?
After passing both levels of parliament, the government has been touting its under-16s social media ban as “world-leading”. But how does the ban actually compare to laws in other countries?
You can have a read of this explainer below:
Caitlin Cassidy ‘Depends on context’ whether certain pro-Palestine phrases antisemitic, Mark Scott says
The University of Sydney’s vice-chancellor, Mark Scott, says it “depends on the context” whether pro-Palestine phrases like “from the river to the sea” are antisemitic.
Scott is continuing to face questioning over a review into the university’s policies and procedures, which includes a new “civility rule” that would require speakers on campus to “make the meaning of contested words and phrases clear to the audience”.
The Nationals MP Henry Pike asked Scott at a parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism whether he considered terms used on his campus such as “from the river to the sea” and “intifada” to be antisemitic in any context.
Scott said:
There is a significant debate around some of these terms and what [the] Hodgkinson [review] says … there is free speech and there are limits to free speech and those limits to free speech are imposed by the law.
There isn’t a jurisdiction in the country that has banned those phrases … it depends on the context … there are Jewish academics at our university who would say that there are not. There are others at our university who have experienced them who would say that they are. It depends on the context.
Woolies denies shelves bare as strike enters second week
Woolworths insists its shelves are not beginning to run bare as warehouse workers enter a second week of strike action.
As AAP reports, up to 1,500 employees across a number of Woolworths distribution centres in Victoria and NSW walked off the job indefinitely on 21 November.
They are fighting for a pay increase, along with an end to a performance framework the United Workers Union said was pushing staff to sacrifice safety standards in pursuit of faster work.
Woolworths insisted all stores were still receiving regular stock deliveries, but some were getting their goods less frequently than previously scheduled.
The union claimed the strike was already having a huge impact, with “gaping holes” on shelves normally containing household and frozen goods. National secretary Tim Kennedy said:
We are seeing bare shelves across the eastern seaboard now. We warned that this would happen if five warehouses took strike action. Woolworths are squeezing shoppers at the register and workers on pay and conditions, while making ever-increasing profits … this is contributing to growing wealth inequality in Australia.
A Woolworths spokeswoman said the company was working hard to sort out the pay dispute.
Watch: the under-16s social media ban explained
As expected, there is much talk today about the under-16s social media ban today, after it passed both levels of parliament.
As our technology reporter Josh Taylor explains, there’s a lot we don’t yet know about how it will work in practice. That includes which platforms will be affected and how those platforms will determine users are the age they say they are.
Since the ban won’t come into force for a year – after the next federal election – that will be the problem of whoever is the next communication minister. You can watch his explainer below for more.
Caitlin Cassidy Sydney university to continue talks on campus protest policies after backlash
The vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney, Mark Scott, says consultation will continue over the campuses’ protest policies after human rights groups and some academics and students criticised them on free speech grounds.
Speaking at a parliamentary inquiry into antisemitism, Scott was asked to reiterate that he had accepted all 15 recommendations of an independent review into the university’s policies and procedures by Bruce Hodgkinson SC, which would require speakers on campus to “make the meaning of contested words and phrases clear to the audience” and to maintain its strict ban on protests in buildings.
It’s only arrived this week … there was a special meeting of senate, our fellows of senate have read the report, they have been briefed … and they accepted the recommendations in principle. But they recognise significant work now has to be done.
In a statement yesterday, the NSW Council for Civil Liberties said “urgent intervention” by the state government was needed to direct management against implementing the proposed restrictions, which it alleged would “effectively ban” basic forms of political expression.
Scott told the inquiry that complaints about antisemitism had “significantly increased” while a pro-Palestine encampment was operating and had since decreased markedly in semester two.
The shadow communications minister, David Coleman, spoke with Sky News earlier this morning as the under-16s social media passed through both levels of parliament.
He told the program that the “benefits far outweigh the risks” of the policy.
What other generation in history has grown up being exposed to as much damaging content as this generation? … [We can] divert our eyes from that and not talk about it, or we can stare it in the face, acknowledge it and do something about it.
Asked about the potential social impacts of the bill for young people, he continued:
I don’t think we’ve sort of come to a position where we should be saying, ‘look, if a 10-year-old can’t access Snapchat, that’s unacceptable.’ I just think that it doesn’t make sense because we know that, overwhelmingly, it’s a bad place for kids to be …
If I am fortunate enough to become communications minister at the election, enforcing this law and ensuring it works as hard as it can to protect Australian kids will be our number one priority.
Severe thunderstorms forecast across NSW and ACT today
As AAP reports, Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury predicted severe thunderstorms and heavy rain across much of NSW and the ACT today.
A cloud band will extend across eastern Australia, bringing humid conditions and scattered showers and thunderstorms.
Severe storms are possible across Sydney once again on Friday, with the risk of flash flooding where storms bring heavy falls.
In Queensland, the BoM forecast severe thunderstorms were likely in inland areas.
Bridges inundated in Queensland flash floods
Flash-flooding hit the isolated In Queensland mining town of Mt Isa after severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall, with all but two of the local bridges inundated, AAP reports.
Water rescue teams were required to help three vehicles out of floodwaters.
Moderate or minor flood warnings were in place for several rivers in NSW and Queensland, while flood-watch warnings were issued for NSW’s central-west and south-west catchments.
Environment groups ‘blindsided’ by Parks Victoria review
NSW gambling reform report leak confirms ‘clear industry win’
Meta concerned about ‘rushed’ social media ban
Enforcing under-16s social media ban ‘number one priority’ if elected – Coalition
