Transcript - 2SM with Chris Smith - 16 September 2025

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

16 September 2025

EO&E …

2SM with Chris Smith

Topics: 2025 election result; Social media age minimum; Digital ID.

 Chris Smith

We've got a cameo performance today from a woman who did the unthinkable. At this year's federal election, defied the voting trend against the Liberal Party, which saw so many sitting MPs kicked out of their positions and regained the seat of Lindsay centred around Penrith in Sydney's west. Melissa McIntosh, welcome to 2SM on the Super Radio Network.

Melissa McIntosh

Thank you, Chris, for having me on. And what a great song. One of my 80’s favourites.

Chris Smith

There's nothing like the eighties. When we all were out dancing and having a good time.

Melissa McIntosh

Absolutely!

Chris Smith

How did you do that? How did you regain Lindsay again, against the federal trend?

Melissa McIntosh

I listened to my community. I was a part of my community. I think the best MPs, and I don't want to say I put myself in that category necessarily, but the best MPs are in sync. We listen. We take on board people's concerns. We try to put those concerns into party policy, and we're out on the ground every day. And it doesn't matter what type of person you are. I've walked the streets of High Street with people experiencing homelessness. I've sat down with women that have gone through domestic violence. I've sat with older people who are really struggling with cost of living and listened and just was there every single day.

Chris Smith

See, I think every single federal MP should spend a day with you.

Melissa McIntosh

I would be very happy. I'd even be happy to have the Prime Minister come out and see what's going on in my community because people are doing it really tough and he doesn't seem to care.

Chris Smith

Well, there are too many federal MPs whose seats don't face the kind of challenges that your seat faces.

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, it has been a very much a swinging seat, usually with the government of the day. Very fortunate that the last two terms, even though we lost the election, I've been able to hold the seat.

Chris Smith

Yeah.

Melissa McIntosh

I love my community. I think it's the best place in our country and people want to live in my part of the world for a better life for their families.

Chris Smith

Yeah, we've got lots of listeners that come from that part of Western Sydney and they're hearing what you're saying now, and they can hear the connect that you have with their challenges, and that's what politicians need to understand. Listen to the people’s, day-to-day challenges.

Now you've been having plenty to say recently about big tech, the eSafety Commissioner, or the Czar as I call her, and the risk to kids being online. We read today that big tech giants could face fines of up to $50 million if they failed to deactivate kids’ social media. Well, a short time ago, a press conference was begun with Anika Wells, the Communications Minister, and Julie Inman-Grant, the eSafety Commissioner, and they have actually, I think, stepped back on that hard line against the big tech giants. I think mainly because the technology couldn't work out the difference between a 14-year-old and a 21-year-old. But anyway, whatever the reason here is a little bit of Anika Wells a short time ago.

Anika Wells: Platforms must implement the laws in a way that is effective, private and fair. They must communicate openly and transparently with their users about the age assurance systems that they are using, and they must use age assurance technology that is private, data minimising secure, and trustworthy and must comply with the existing protections under the Privacy Act. We know the platforms have the capability to do this. These are some of the biggest and best resourced companies in the world. We will always keep backing Australian families and keeping Australian kids safe. We cannot control the ocean, but we can police the sharks. And today we are making clear to the rest of the world how we intend to do this.

This is not a black and white issue to me. There is a lot of grey in this. Where do you stand?

Melissa McIntosh

I feel there's a lot of grey. There's a lot of emotion for me - I feel, as a parent, the emotion and I sat down with parents, in Canberra just the other week, who'd lost their children to online harm, and that's really difficult. You'd have to be really cold-hearted person to not care about our kids and this is what it's meant to be about. On the other hand, I don't think I'm the eSafety Commissioner's most favourite person in the world right now.

Chris Smith

Good.

Melissa McIntosh

Because I've been questioning the use of her powers and the extent of powers that she does have. She's not an elected official.

Chris Smith

No.

Melissa McIntosh

She's not answerable to the Australian people.

Chris Smith

No.

Melissa McIntosh

And there is no transparency around her powers or why she may have used those powers.

Chris Smith

And anyone who wants to bring down connection to YouTube by young people have not had one-on-one experience with what kids face on YouTube. It has strict protocols that guide kids away from the dangerous stuff. They are doing a terrific job in YouTube. The fact that they would want to ban YouTube from being in connection to kids under-16 is just weird. And it’s uneducated, they haven't done their due diligence on that. As for the other areas of social media, I think there's a groundswell of support from parents, don't you think?

Melissa McIntosh

Yeah, I think because that pure reason we want to protect our kids and what is going on social media is abhorrent. It's terrible. The bullying, the exposure to inappropriate content, there's no questioning that part of it. It's when, and I feel that there could be a time where people would just get so fed up with being police as adults, that it might impact what we're trying to do in protecting our kids. For example, there's question marks around digital ID. We never signed up as a Coalition for the use of digital ID as one of the measures should the other measures fail around verification of age. And even in the report that's been released, today and in the press conference, there's no guarantee from the eSafety Commissioner. I met with her last week, and she still could not give me a guarantee that at some point digital ID may need to be used.

Chris Smith

In other words, she'll use it, she'll bring it in.

Melissa McIntosh

She has the powers to do that.

Chris Smith

Yeah.

Melissa McIntosh

She currently has the powers. Her feedback to me was, ‘I have no intention of using those powers’.

Chris Smith

Yeah. She's also made this statement a short time ago, Julie Inman-Grant rubbishing suggestions that the social media ban will have to capture everyone, which is really a step back from where they were standing. even yesterday. So, here's Julian Mann grant.

Julie Inman-Grant: I think one of the scare tactics we've already seen one of the platforms used is you know, every Australian is going to have to age verify. They of course don't want to do that because that is going to create a lot of friction and a lot of inconvenience for everyone. So we have actually said in the guidance. That would be an unreasonable step to take. Again, they're using very granular tools, often AI based, age inference tools that, I mean, tell them very basic things. 13-year-olds very often are speaking to 13-year-olds. They'll use natural language processing, looking at emojis and acronyms, and the way language is used, they'll look at. When kids are logging in before school and after school, there are a whole range of signals that they can have to identify under sixteens.

There's a lot of guessing involved in this little process, isn't there?

Melissa McIntosh

Tricky language as well. So, the age inference or estimation as a first step is, in plain speaking, it means, the social media platforms will try to look at whether someone would be following a teen page or if they've had their account say for 10 years or less. But as a backup, they can use age verification. It just can't be the default mechanism, meaning we could go to digital ID if there's no other measures that work.

Chris Smith

Yeah.

Melissa McIntosh

And the eSafety Commissioner is just not answering that question around at some point, is it possible that digital ID would have to be used or could be used?

Chris Smith

It's got to be a second step. You can just see it coming. Listen, you are not only popular, and you've gone against the trend. You do your homework, and you are super intelligent. Thank you very much for your contribution this morning and let's hope we can talk again.

Melissa McIntosh

Thanks Chris. I really appreciate it.