6PR with Russell Collett - 9 December 2025

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

Tuesday, 9 December 2025

Transcript

6PR with Russell Collett

Subject: Communications Minister Anika Wells travel expenses; Social media ban; Triple Zero.

E&OE ....

Russell Collett: Our Shadow Communications Minister joins us here on Perth Live, Melissa McIntosh to give us the latest on what is happening with this incredible travel entitlements of the Minister. Good afternoon, Melissa.

Melissa McIntosh: Yeah, thank you. Thanks, Rusty. You said she's throwing taxpayers money around. The government's meant to be saving taxpayers money, not spending so lavishly like she is. And it is a day-by-day revelation. The family reunion mechanism was meant to be when you're working, if you've been away from your family, then you get a chance to bring them along and I think you should use that sparingly. I've used it a few times with Prime Minister when I've been with him, with the Opposition leader and when I've been in Queensland, but it was three times in seven years. This Minister is using it seems like every opportunity she can. I don't know how she's getting any work done. She's meant to be overseeing fixing the Triple Zero network, but she's spending her time at sporting events, spending her time in the US racking up big dollar dinners and seems to be living the life, which I don't think Australians particularly like. And I know they don't.

Russell Collett: No, they definitely don't. Especially, we're heading towards a trillion dollars’ worth of debt and we're all being told it's time that we've got to tighten the belt buckles and we've got to make sure of our spending's done right. And we're looking at 5% deductions to some of the government departments. They put the call out there, find yourself a 5% deduction. This Minister could certainly find themselves a bigger deduction just on her own travel entitlement. Some of the expenses are they just do not pass the pub test. Having a com car, a government taxpayer paid comm car sitting for seven hours while the Minister takes in the tennis, because obviously the Minister wanted the car ready when she was finished with the tennis watching is just remarkable.

People are irate about this.

Melissa McIntosh: Yeah, it's a real sense of entitlement. It's a privilege to be a Member of Parliament and it's actually a privilege to be able to have this sort of family reunion thing going on. And, you know, it's a, it's a real gift. But to be overusing it, to be taking advantage, it’s raw. It actually makes me cranky because it paints a, you know, a bad brush on all politicians. People don't particularly like us anyway. And then people read about this sort of extravagant, sort of splurging of self-indulgence and you know, the F1, it's not one thing, it's F1, it's the cricket, the AFL, it's the tennis and the com car and the trip to the to the US and $100,000 on airfares, falling asleep at a $1,000 meal. It blows your mind. It really, really does. And it's not acceptable. The Prime Minister has to step up and do something because it's not just this one minister. There's multiple ministers that are spending so much money. Another minister's had 200 of these family reunions.

He needs to show leadership. Stop being Airbus Albo because he's leading by example. His Ministers are seeing what he's doing. And pull your Ministers up.

Russell Collett: Yeah, especially this time. We've never reached any of these sorts of debt levels where we're heading. This is when people are saying we definitely want to be pulled in, we want to rein in this debt. Because just the interest bill alone is frightening for Australia and it's opportunities that we don't get because we're paying off our enormous loans that a lot of it was, of course, from the COVID era. But this is not the time to be throwing taxpayer money around willy nilly. Going to the AFL grand final three times the meal for two, worked out about 1500 dollars Australian. Who else eats like that?

Melissa McIntosh: Well, that's right. And on top of that, something that really disturbs me is she has a serious job to do. So, we have had another revelation today about another death. When it comes to Triple Zero, she oversees the Triple Zero network. It is her job. Why isn't she doing her job? She certainly can't be doing it if she's at all these sporting events and cruising around the country, she has important work to do. There's a social media ban coming in tomorrow. It’s beggars’ belief. It certainly does.

Russell Collett: And some of the responses to the press gallery are just smug. There's no other way to describe them than someone just looking over the top of the press gallery or asking serious questions about where this money's going to, the incredible amounts that are being spent by this minister and she's answering them in a smug manner and Australians don't like it.

Melissa McIntosh: Yeah. What happened to transparency with a government for transparency? She said to the press gallery that day that she was being transparent. Well, I don't think that is true at all. I think her staff have rushed in some of the Declarations on some of the tickets she's received to concerts. And as I'm saying, how is she doing her job, which is off to concerts, sporting events, holidays with the family, all on the taxpayer dime.

Russell Collett: Yeah, no, it is just remarkable. It really is. And of course, the Prime Minister standing up, basically saying, this is okay, it all passes the pub test because it's allowed under the guidelines. It doesn't pass the pub test. Average Joe, people that are going to be standing around at Christmas time, he will not pass the pub test with them around their Christmas dinners.

It'll be a hot topic right across the summer. And, and as more and more leaking comes out and more and more revelations, not just about this minister, about other ministers of the Crown, now the revelations are starting to come out, we're starting to find out exactly where all this money is going, and it is not good. It does smell too high heaven. In regard to the under 16 social media ban. I can't personally see it working. I think our kids are very clever. I think they're incredibly adept when it comes to communications. They're a different breed to what we were. They really are when it comes to finding ways around communication bands. And I can't see it working. But it kicks in tomorrow. And also, with this, a lot of kids that maybe don't have the opportunities of getting around it so early, some of them are going to be quite affected tomorrow, especially here in the west when kids, or some, some parts of our education area kids go into school holidays.

Melissa McIntosh: Yeah, that's right. It was a terrible timing with December 10^th, right on school holidays. The Coalition supported the law and it was a Peter Dutton policy. So, we can't step away from that and we want to protect Australian children. But I've been warning for some time now that I don't think that. Well, I'm fearing that it's not going to be a success for Australian kids. The drip feeding of the platforms, a number of platforms I hadn't even heard of until a couple of weeks ago, kids are now migrating, rating across to those because they can't get onto the major platform. So they're not getting off social media. And you mentioned how hard it is for kids. I was trying to find out if the government had invested any money into youth mental health services and I can't see that they've spent any money. And psychologists are now warning, please watch out for your kids. They could have, you know, some mental health issues. Well, why hasn't the government addressed that if that's a real concern and the one that I hate most, that I don't think has really been picked up and maybe people realise once the ban comes into place, is that platforms are going to ask people for their digital ID, so your driver's license or your birth certificate. Because if they can't confirm your age through age verification technology like a facial scan and there's a high failure rate on that, then they will ask you. And your data is being shipped offshore, stored in a data centre. Gosh knows where and for how long, we don't know.

Russell Collett: And how safe is it?

Melissa McIntosh: Well, we know here in Australia there's been data breaches. So, you've got a third-party provider that is not even one of the big tech companies. They've outsourced this component of it. And I asked the tech companies and I know the media ask the Minister, this is, well, how long will the data be stored? And the answer is that I'll be destroyed as quick as possible. I don't think that's good enough either. So, Minister, stop, going to sporting events and start doing your job properly.

Russell Collett: Yeah. And just before I do let you go, thank you for your time. Today the telecom boss has come out and says, has announced that a second person may have died due to the Triple Zero failure. What's happening on this and when's the inquiry going to get some, some advice out there to us, the Australians that are paying for it all?

Melissa McIntosh:

I think this is a real disaster and this is on the Minister's watch, so there's a bit of a theme here. Right. So, she left her post during the initial Triple Zero crisis to go overseas to promote the social media ban before it was even a success and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars. So, during that time we hear, and it's actually when she was overseas, that there somebody with a Samsung phone tried to call Triple Zero and couldn't get through. So a revelation in the Senate inquiry into the Triple Zero network today revealed that this happened in September. Telstra alerted the Minister's Department and the regulator ACMA, but nobody knew about it until. So, did the Minister not know about this as well? Or did she know and not tell anyone? Or was she too busy overseas? It gets very complex, but the thing is this keeps happening. I've been calling for an independent investigation. It's not just the networks, it's the handsets and it's the infrastructure that's failing Australians. So right now, TPG and Samsung advises today there could be up to 90,000 handsets out there in Australia that need new software, or they won't be able to be used for triple zero. That's a huge number of handsets that may not work in a person's greatest time of need. Where's the urgency from the Minister? Where's the urgency from the Prime Minister to alert Australians about what they should do to make sure that their handsets are safe?

Russell Collett: Yeah. They're either at sporting events, spending money on lavish meals or heading overseas with family. That's what a lot of them are doing. Thank you again for your time today. I know you're going to be very, very busy in your area. This portfolio is going to get busier and busier. We wish you all the best in the lead up to Christmas and all the best for 2026.

Melissa McIntosh: Thank you to you and your listeners, too.

[ENDS]