2BS Bathurst Drive with Tim Williams - 8 December 2025

Melissa McIntosh MP
Shadow Minister for Communications
Shadow Minister for Women
Federal Member for Lindsay

Monday, 8 December 2025

Transcript

2BS Bathurst Drive with Tim Williams

Subject: Social media ban; Age verification and Digital ID; Australian’s data stored off-shore by social media platforms; Communications Minister Anika Wells travel expenses.

E&OE ...

Tim Williams

Now I have Melissa McIntosh, who is the federal member for Lindsay, which is essentially, I guess, Penrith, isn't it?

Melissa McIntosh

Yes, it is Penrith, St Mary's, and all the great suburbs in between.

Tim Williams

Okay. Now, apart from being the the member for Lindsay, you're also the federal Shadow Minister for Communications and Shadow Minister for Women, so you've got a big role, haven't you?

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, yeah, first and foremost member for Lindsay, always, I love my local community, but also the Shadow Minister for Communications, which is there's a lot going on in that portfolio right now.

Tim Williams

That's right now, two days from now, that's where the the under sixteens all of a sudden, you know, basically not able to go online.

Melissa McIntosh

So the social media ban for under 16 comes into effect, and the Coalition supported this policy. It was picked up in policy going into the election as well. What I've been quite critical of is the government's rollout of the policy. Kids get around things, and they're already migrating across to other platforms that aren't included in the ban. And I'm also concerned about people being compelled to use digital identification to prove who they are before they can get an account. So if a platform like Meta or any of the platforms that are caught up in this can't verify your age using age verification technology, they may ask you to produce a driver's license or a birth certificate. And I think most Australians would be really against that and their data being stored offshore.

Tim Williams

Yeah, that's right, because the last thing that I would want is my driver's license being put out there, you know, generally. If you were asked to produce a driver's license saying you were 17 or 18, the last thing you'd want is for that to be out there on the on the web.

Melissa McIntosh

Well, yeah, you don't know where the data is being stored. So these are third party age verification companies. It's not Meta itself or one of the other platforms. So that data will go offshore, all the platforms can say how long that data will be held on to, how long these offshore companies will hold on to people's private information before destroying it. I think that's a big concern for many Australians.

Tim Williams

Now, the other thing, and you know that is that's one part that you've got to worry about, is that two days from now you've got that legislation coming into effect, but the other one is, you're the Shadow Minister for Communications, and your counterpart, the government minister, is in all sorts of strife at the moment, isn't she, for airfares and the like.

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, one of the things I said she should have done was stay in the country during the triple zero crisis. People had died during that Optus outage, and she went overseas to the UN to promote the social media ban before it was even successful. Now we're hearing that it was a very expensive trip, $100,000 in flights and an event that cost around 70 grand. But in addition to that, there's more expenses that are coming to light, I suppose, that probably people wouldn't consider past the public interest or pub test, as many people say.

Tim Williams

Yeah. Many people call it that, don't, they wouldn't pass the pub test. But it's not just, you know, we find out about that 100,000 airfare, but also now we're finding out about hubby going to the box at cricket, and an $1,800 airfare to get in there for that corporate box.

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, the cricket, the AFL grand final, and the Formula One. These are a great expense. And I think family reunion is one thing. I think that's important. You know, people are long term. Their kids. But I think that this pattern of behaviour of very excessive expenditure. It’s just not on, people don’t like it.

Tim Williams

People should be in politics, should be looking at the thing beforehand and saying, well okay, does this is past the pub test? No, it doesn't, therefore I don't do it.

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, yeah. I think that's a good point. Is you've got to make that judgment. And on this occasion, it's multiple occasions where the minister's saying it’s within the rules, within the guidelines, she's saying, but probably questionable when it comes to the code of conduct of the Prime Minister that he set, and it's a lot of money, and it's taxpayers money. I think she could exercise her judgments a bit better on these things.

Tim Williams

With the with the legislation coming in on Wednesday, as you said, the Coalition actually supported it, but at this stage, kids are pretty smart. They'll get around these things, won't they?

Melissa McIntosh

We’re hearing they're getting around it already, and they're using, potentially using AI technology to alter their base. And there's all sorts of ways that they'll get around it. I think the intent is good. We all want to protect children online, but there's a big risk of failure here, and by the fact that there's a number of social media platforms not even included in this ban right now, that's, that's one of the failures of this government.

Tim Williams

It's pretty disturbing. A lot of the stuff that that you're hearing, I heard of a father who said his 12 year old daughter had opened an account, and that's in the last week or so, and had got through with flying colours.

Melissa McIntosh

And that's type of age a child that shouldn't be on social media. And I think a lot of parents are going to struggle over Christmas as well with their kids, all of a sudden, getting off social media. and there's been very little education campaigning going on. Yeah, we'll see. It's a couple of days to go. Let's hope in the interests of those children. But right now, we're hearing there's a lot of ways around this ban.

Tim Williams

So anything that you think that should have been done better?

Melissa McIntosh

Yes, absolutely. I think, the government set the date on this. They're the ones that pushed it through with legislation, so now it's up for them to make sure it's effective and it does protect Australian children.

Tim Williams

And I don't think there's anybody who disagrees with that, the fact that the concept of it, well, it's been accepted in so many countries around the world, hasn't it that Australia has been the pace setter in this but we haven't got it right, have we?

Melissa McIntosh

It hasn't even been rolled out yet. I think the government was pre-empting the celebrations on this one, and I think they should be more focused on ensuring its success for kids.

Tim Williams

Melissa McIntosh, thank you sincerely for your time this afternoon, I'm guessing you are getting hit from pillar to post with requests for interviews today.

Melissa McIntosh

It's been great to speak to you, and my best wishes to all your listeners.

Tim Williams

Thanks very much Melissa.

[ENDS]