Shadow Minister for Communications, Transcript – Sky News Sharri
The Hon. David Coleman MP
Shadow Minister for Communications
Federal Member for Banks
11 September 2024
Subject: Labor’s farcical social media announcement
E&OE…
Sharri Markson: Welcome back. Well, the countdown is on for the Prime Minister to legislate his new social media ban. But as I mentioned last night, this is going to be very difficult for the Government because it lacks so much detail. Labor couldn’t get its story straight, Albanese was saying one thing about the age range, his Communication Minister was saying another, and the tender for the company to run the trial doesn’t even come back until October. Well to discuss, let’s bring in now Shadow Communications Minister, David Coleman. David, welcome to the show. Look, this is quite extraordinary that the Prime Minister announced this, did a television breakfast blitz, but then there was no policy to back this up. There was no age that he’d nominated and he’s saying legislation will be introduced by the end of the year. But do you think that’s going to be possible given the trial that he’s talking about isn’t going to start until at least mid-October?
David Coleman: Yeah, it’s hard to see how they do it, Sharri. It’s completely and utterly farcical. So, what’s happened here is the Prime Minister’s realised he’s losing on this issue. He’s behind on the issue. The Coalition’s been pursuing this issue for a long time. Premier Malinauskas has from South Australia as well and he’s gone, okay, we’ll do an announcement, we’ll say we’re going to do age verification for social media, tick, and everything will be fine. But as you said, they’ve done absolutely no work on this, and they haven’t even started the process of a trial for age verification technology. They announced the trial back in May, they put out the tender for the trial yesterday. People don’t even have to respond to the tender until the 7th of October. I mean, it is just ridiculous. How can you have an age verification policy for social media when you don’t know what the age will be? It is just the most fundamental point.
Sharri Markson: And then the Minister, the Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland, said, well she might introduce legislation without the age limit in it. So what would that legislation actually be?
David Coleman: Well, who knows? I think they’re making it up as they go along, Sharri. I mean this is, as you said, this is like something from a political satire. Peter Dutton, in contrast, came out in June and very clearly said the Coalition will do this. We’ll do it within 100 days of being elected and the age will be 16. So no ambiguity from Peter Dutton. A clear, strong position. Sitting here today, we’ve got a Government that says they’re going to do this but hasn’t done any work on it and has absolutely no idea how to do it. And it’s symptomatic of the Government more generally, weak, indecisive, driven by events, flapping in the breeze and that’s no way to run a country.
Sharri Markson: It was one of the worst cases of a political announcement I’ve seen that has no detail behind it. I couldn’t believe so much of the media failed to call this out. I mean, you just said, it was like a political satire. Well, it was like this scene I showed this last night, but I’ve got to show it again because it is such an accurate depiction. Have a look at this from The Hollowmen.
Video extract – ‘The Hollowmen’: “I don’t think we’re at the press release stage just yet. Come on, we’re always at the press release stage. But what are we announcing? The Prime Minister declares war on obesity, childhood obesity. That’s just a line. What comes next? Well, that’s your job, mate that’s what you get paid for, to come up with all the other pages. Everybody’s really excited about the PM’s plan. There is no plan. Yes there is, we’ve announced it and people love it. Nothing has been decided.”
Sharri Markson: It’s actually an indictment on the media and I don’t like to criticise the media, but he was able to do a TV television breakfast, Sunrise, Today Show, ABC and multiple interviews with journalists without anyone actually pointing out that the trial, the tender for the trial that he kept talking about doesn’t even return until October. So there’s no way in a month and a half he can have the trial done, conducted and the legislation wrapped up. Do you think this is just the press gallery bought this spin?
David Coleman: Look, I think that because it’s such an important issue, you can understand the media being interested to talk to the Prime Minister about it. I think as those first few moments have fallen by the wayside and people have started to look into this, the general view is complete scepticism. I mean, everyone in this building sees this for what it is. I mean, it is a joke and it’s a shame because this is a really serious issue. The issue of social media and what it is…
Sharri Markson: 100%.
David Coleman: …is massive. And that’s why, as you know, I’ve been very focused on this for a long time, so was Peter Dutton. That’s why the Coalition took such a strong stand on this months ago. And you’ve got a Prime Minister that has actually opposed the age verification trial that we tried to legislate back in November, walked into the Parliament and the Labor Party voted against it. Six months later, they said, okay, we’ll do the trial. And four and a half months later they hadn’t even put out the tender. And this is in a sense, the essence of this Government. It’s one thing to put out a press release, it’s another to actually govern. And they have just no idea how to govern.
Sharri Markson: All right. David Coleman, thank you very much for your time.