Transcript - 2CC Breakfast - 14 November 2025

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

14 November 2025 

Transcript 

2CC Breakfast with Stephen Cenatiempo

Topics: World Diabetes Day; Type 1 diabetes; social media age minimum; Roblox.  

E&EO … 

Stephen Cenatiempo

Melissa McIntosh is the Shadow Minister for Communications, and we've spoken to her a number of times about her political role, but I want to talk to her about her role as a mother, particularly of a child living with Type 1 diabetes. She joins us now. Melissa, good morning.

Melissa McIntosh

Good morning.

Cenatiempo

Now, I know that you've worked pretty closely with Diabetes Australia on this campaign. Your son Byron's been living with Type 1 diabetes, I imagine, for most of his life. How early was he diagnosed?

McIntosh

He - thank you for asking. And first and foremost, I'm a mum and having a child with Type 1 is never easy. Byron's 22 now, he didn't actually get Type 1 until he was 19.

Cenatiempo

Okay.

McIntosh

Byron got Covid and that triggered an immune response in his system, and he got Type 1 unfortunately, and it's not even in our family, which is quite common. But your world changes when you have a child. Doesn't matter if they're a small child or a teenager, sometimes it feels like we've got a baby in the house when he has a low during the night. Because if someone with Type 1, their blood sugars drop low, which can happen particularly when they're asleep, they can die.

Cenatiempo

Yeah.

McIntosh

And of course the highs have more long term health impacts. And when you're talking about access to technology, it's so important, I just think about how far technology has come to help people. So, Byron, if he goes really low during the night and alarm goes off and this is where it talks about like having a newborn in the house, sometimes you jump up and, you know, give him honey and make sure he wakes up and all that sort of thing. And that's a lifelong condition that you have, there's no cure for it and it's an all in family condition. Like everyone, all the siblings, Byron's dad too, we're always hyper alert, so it's a bit of a roller coaster and it's something that is an illness that's not seen. So, Byron was on the under 23 Australian judo team while managing Type 1 diabetes and people just don't see how much you're fighting this illness. So, thank you for bringing awareness to diabetes today. I think it's really important. I'm so grateful that you have.

Cenatiempo

Like, I have mild Type 2 diabetes and with Type 2 diabetes, largely it's our own fault because of lifestyle choices that we've developed it. But this is something that Type 1 diabetes is one of those things that you can't really do anything about, but you've raised a couple of interesting points that I think will probably surprise a number of people, is that we often think that it's the kind of thing you're born with or you diagnose when you're a baby and you live with it your whole life. But as you say, Byron was 19 and I've got a colleague here that I think was in his 50s when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

McIntosh

Wow.

Cenatiempo

It's one of those things that can creep up on you.

McIntosh

Yes, it's an autoimmune disease and it is something that you don't know is going to come. Byron was studying for university and the only symptoms that he had, and this is a good one to remind for people out there, make you aware is was increased thirst. Just always thirsty.

Cenatiempo

Yeah.

McIntosh

And one day when he was studying, he got up to go to the bathroom, I think, and he sort of fell into the wall. And my husband rushed him straight to the doctors and he was straight into emergency and his blood sugar levels were at 40. And the emergency doctors said that his blood was like syrup. So, we had no idea this was coming. And then he spent time in hospital and then he's had to be - he's going to have to be on insulin for the rest of his life and to manage that. So, it is something that you don't expect will happen and you don't see coming.

Cenatiempo

The interesting thing there is, and that was the other thing I wanted to talk to you about, that you raised when you were telling your story at the beginning here, is that we think about, you know, diabetes being high blood sugar. And obviously when that incident happened, it was very, very high. But it's also the low blood sugar that is a problem for diabetics. When we talk about technology, I know that there's now, you know, insulin delivery systems where rather than having to take, you know, up to five injections a day, you've got the pump that basically adjusts your insulin as you go throughout the course of the day based on a permanent monitor. But when it comes to those hypoglycemic episodes, when blood sugar gets low, what does the technology do? Is it just that alarm or is there something that - is there medication that sort of addresses that at the time as well?

McIntosh

There's a lot of panicking that goes on. It's usually when someone's asleep and you've had your last meal and you've injected all the pumps, injected - and it's much better with a pump. And it's too much insulin in your system and not enough carbohydrates not enough sugar.

Cenatiempo

Right.

McIntosh

And that's what if you've got too much insulin, then that drops, plummets you down and it can get to a level if it goes too low, you can go into a coma and you can die. It's really such, it's like such a roller coaster and such a, you know – a really difficult is the best way as a mum I can put it, that difficult illness to manage and - but the pumps do change lives. The issue, and I probably will get a bit political here, we're fortunate Byron’s on private health insurance …

Cenatiempo

Yeah.

McIntosh

But not everyone can afford that, and the pumps cost around $8,000 to $10,000 …

Cenatiempo

Wow.

McIntosh

And, you know, that's just really – that’s hard for families. And it's not only the pumps that you have to buy, it's the insulin and you've got to be on that for the rest of your life. And then there's a see - it's called a constant glucose monitor that you put on your body and that body reads your insulin levels and talks to the pump and that costs as well. So, you can just think out there that these - this technology is transforming the way people with diabetes are living their lives. But not everyone can afford it.

Cenatiempo

It's an extraordinary expense and we hear these kind of stories with a lot of conditions. So how does Byron manage? You mentioned that he's an under 23 judo competitor, so he's obviously fairly fit and I imagine fitness does help here. But there was a famous rugby league player, Brett Stewart, who, his nickname was ‘Snake’ because he always had a bag of snake lollies in his bag because if he got one of those low sugar episodes, he'd chew on the snakes or jelly beans or something like that. How does Byron manage day to day?

McIntosh

Yeah, we were very fortunate. Byron's dad was an Olympic athlete, so he knew a bit about sport. And with judo there was international judo rules, and you couldn't wear a device, you can't wear anything on your body during a judo match. And Byron's dad managed to help Byron rewrite the rules for international judo. So now anyone that has Type 1 diabetes can have a device like a CGM or a pump to compete in judo. So that's another thing – like, could you imagine there's all these kids around the world that couldn't wear the devices that were saving their life …

Cenatiempo

Yeah.

McIntosh

While they were competing. So, he does manage. Adrenaline plays a big part in making your blood sugar levels go up high and then you can plummet really low. So, it does add an extra complexity. But I know kids now are, you know, really being involved in sport and people, the more awareness there is, the better it will be for kids. Byron's had coaches tell him to stop looking at his phone during training because you get your measurements on your phone.

Cenatiempo

Yeah.

McIntosh

And Byron's older, so you just think about the younger kids that do want to play sport, soccer, netball, whatever they want to do. But having a day like today, raising awareness, talking about it, makes it more normal and I think that's a really good step.

Cenatiempo

How does he manage with the devices getting thrown around in the judo competitions? Does he have to be careful not to damage them or dislodge them or whatever?

McIntosh

Yeah, you do. His CGM, the constant glucose monitor, is taped to his body with a special gel patch and it does sometimes get ripped off, so it's not easy. And generally, you take the pump off and you hope for the best while you're competing and then get it back on again. So it's a difficulty, it's a challenge. But I think, like, with a lot of people that have a condition, it makes them work harder and prove to the world that they can still achieve whatever they want to achieve. And that's definitely the message. Byron, he's been going out and speaking to other young people that you still can do anything, even with a condition like Type 1 diabetes. You may have it for the rest of your life, but you can still strive for your life's goals.

Cenatiempo

Well, good on him for that. Now we do have to talk politics. You'll be happy to know I'm not going to talk about net zero, but I do want to talk about something in your portfolio area. You're one of the few politicians that has come out against this social media ban that comes in on the tenth of December. Now, the concern I have is, is that there's one expert that has talked about this, a university professor, in the last couple of days, about the fact that the most dangerous content that's available out there online has been excluded from this, including this Roblox gaming platform. And we know that it's within the gaming chats where these gaming influencers and a lot of groomers, et cetera, are getting to kids. The concern here is that because they're not allowed on social media, they're going to spend more time on the more dangerous places.

McIntosh

That's a really valid concern. And I know – I said this to you before, that the Coalition sort of came up with this policy. But the more it went along, and I wasn't in the Shadow Communications role at the time, like, every step that we've taken gives me more doubts and more concerns about this being the right pathway, banning kids. And as well as Byron, I've got another son, Kobe, who's 17, but he's been on Roblox and we were aghast when we saw some of the things that were coming through. You have to - you could be the most, you know, controlling parent in the world when it comes to what your kids are looking at, but things slip through and it's really difficult. And to think that kids could be going on to communicate onto these gaming platforms, which certainly don't, you know, seem to be appropriate for children a lot of the time is a big worry. And not only that, we're missing the whole AI phenomenon with the social media ban where you're hearing about kids having best friends that are AI bots and what's going to happen with technology moving so fast in the future and that's not caught up in this ban as well. So, the unintended consequences are really concerning.

Cenatiempo

The thing that really annoys me and I've said this – I’ve lost how many times I've said this on air and I've spoken to the foremost expert in the world on child protection and he's based here in Australia - that if we just give parents access to the same controls over the platforms that enterprise clients have. So, and the example I use is you in Parliament, you have a government issued phone and you can't download TikTok onto it, for instance.

McIntosh

Yep.

Cenatiempo

It's because somebody in Parliament House blocks you from doing that. We can give parents that same ability, but we don't.

McIntosh

I agree. Why are we going to a straight out ban when those technologies are available and could be used? And even if there is still a ban and that's happening right now, so we can't get away from that, we shouldn't be stopping looking at - because if the ban falls over, I just think adults are going to, adults, you know …

Cenatiempo

Yeah.

McIntosh

Australians are going to be really fed up and cranky that they've had to go through this, whether it's showing their digital ID or you know, having to have other forms of age verification. So, keep working on the technologies while this ban's in place and hopefully we can move across to them because something like having parental controls, restrictions on a phone, like you're saying, sounds like a practical and common sense idea to me.

Cenatiempo

Melissa, great to talk to you on World Diabetes Day. Thanks for your time.

McIntosh

Thank you.