Transcript - ABC Afternoon Briefing - 6 August 2025

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

ABC Afternoon Briefing with Patricia Karvelas

Subjects: eSafety Commissioner; AI report.

Video: ABC News 24 Afternoon Briefing- 06.08.25

Patricia Karvelas

Let's bring in the Shadow Communications Minister, Melissa McIntosh. Melissa, welcome.

Melissa McIntosh

Thanks very much, Patricia.

Patricia Karvelas

The eSafety Commissioner has slammed these tech companies; Apple and Google over their responses to transparency requests on how they're tracking and stopping child sexual abuse material on their services. That's Julia Inman Grant. She's been speaking about this. They are pushing back against this. But are you concerned that they're not taking enough action?

Melissa McIntosh

Thanks. I think I've said to you before the number one priority of a government and opposition and anyone in a position of power in politics should be about protecting our children. Hearing this just makes me feel sick on the inside. It's not something that you can ignore. I haven't read the full report. I didn't get a heads up it's coming. But I've been trying to go through it today, but on the on the surface of things something more needs to be done. It's one thing for the eSafety Commissioner to say there are issues that are not being addressed online, she did name some platforms. There are platforms there that weren't named like TikTok and even AI, open source AI, was not mentioned at all, and that's also the future. But if this is going on. If things aren't changing. If children are being exploited in the most horrible, disgusting ways that no one could reasonable could ever imagine, then the government needs to step in a little bit more. This is a bit of a warning bell that there are things going on out there that are not right. And even if we have a ban on kids under 16, this is something else. There are evil things going on in the online world, and you've been talking about AI. We need to be seriously looking at the future for our kids in that space too.

Patricia Karvelas

Yeah, I mean the eSafety Commissioner was obviously set up by a previous government. This government has built in her recommendations to be part of their process. That's why YouTube was recently put into that under sixteens ban that will start in December. Are you saying that we need to relook to see if there's enough power for the eSafety Commissioner because she's making these requests to these companies? She's telling us that she's not satisfied by the response. Do we need to beef up the laws?

Melissa McIntosh

On the contrary, I fear in some respects that the eSafety Commissioner as an unelected official has too much power in some ways. I think she should be, it should be officials, it should be parliamentarians that are making such serious decisions on in regards to this. It is such a serious issue having the eSafety Commissioner, the only individual sole person overseeing this very, very serious issue with claims of platforms not addressing serious accounts of child sex abuse and other abuse, it should be up to the government. Technology is moving so quickly. When the eSafety Commissioner role was established, when the codes, the power that she had was established the digital world was a little bit a little bit different. So I think because things are moving so fast and it is a serious issue for all governments around the world to protect our kids online now and into the future, I think it's time that we could be, could be looking at how that might play out.

Patricia Karvelas

Okay.

Melissa McIntosh

There is, I just want to say here, there is some risk of over, and I'm not by any means lessening the terrible nature of this particular issue, there is some arguments that in protecting our kids and, you know, having that power, it does sometimes sort of bleed across into the adult world where adults have choice in what they do online. Not this sort of evil stuff, but in what they might view, in what they might want to participate in. And we don't want to overstep because if you overstep it upsets people. It upsets Australians to think they're being over policed online. We need to keep the focus very, very much on the safety and the protection of our children and the stories out today around all this going on in the online world, on digital platforms of things not being policed properly within organisations it's concerning. It's concerning for every parent out there, it's concerning. For a politician, I'd like to see the government's response and the Prime Minister's response on these, you know, these findings by the eSafety Commissioner. I'd also I would like to make one more point on this. I’d like her to work closely with the Australian centre for child exploitation that was set up under the Coalition government. The former opposition leader Peter Dutton was very passionate about this. Some of the findings that I'm seeing in the report refer to a US, similar US organisation. But what's the state of play here in Australia? What are the issues we are seeing here in Australia? How are children, unfortunately and very sadly potentially being exploited here and online like how are we protecting our kids here in this country?

Patricia Karvelas

So let me just.

Melissa McIntosh

That should be the priority.

Patricia Karvelas

If I can just get back in on the eSafety Commissioner, you're saying that you do, you think the eSafety Commissioner has too much power?

Melissa McIntosh

There's a code that she has that she can now implement where for Australians adults as well to go online, to get full access to the internet, you're going to have to log in and I think a lot of Australians wouldn't realise that that is her power to enable that to happen. You'd like to see that to be going through all the processes of government. I think as an individual and not her personally, but her role as an individual, that one person who is not an elected parliamentarian, with digital technology moving so fast.

Patricia Karvelas

Yeah, but the Parliament.

Melissa McIntosh

That she does potentially have too much power over the parameters that she has as eSafety Commissioner.

Patricia Karvelas

But the Parliament enables this right? So the Parliament, the elected people, people like you and obviously the government, who you know, have the power actually construct the laws. And then she's meant to administer it. Isn't that the system working well or do you think she's overreaching, or the laws have overreached?

Melissa McIntosh

Well, I think there's times that we can go and relook at the laws that were put in place at a certain point of time and the unintended consequences of some laws as technology develops further. But I would hate - even having this conversation around her powers takes away from this, you know this, what's going on online, the protection of our kids, which is what it should really be about, because that is absolutely stomach churning, horrible information to come out that kids are being exploited online and not enough is being done. More needs to be done. We should be, you know, once again we hear this and we should all be aghast that this is actually happening. Why is this happening alone? How's it - how is it at this stage? And I think there needs to be a very prompt and serious look from the government with the information that they now have from their eSafety Commissioner.

Patricia Karvelas

The Productivity Commission today has also reported on AI. You mentioned AI and the way it affects children. They don't want a whole lot of regulation on AI, different interpretations of what they say, but they see it as burdensome regulation. Do you think we should have a light touch approach to AI or should we be looking at some serious regulation?

Melissa McIntosh

As a Liberal - regulation like, you're scaring me there. No, I'm also very patriotic about protecting Australian content. I've spoken about this before, and you can talk it about in the sense of the news media bargaining code and protecting news media, so that should be a priority protecting content you know. My son is very interested and works a lot in, you know, in drawings and you know if we're protecting online drawings, novelists. You were talking about that and journalists. I think it's, you know it is a concern and if there's any weakening of the laws, we already have enough difficulties in this country when it comes to the protection of intellectual property. There's so much in intellectual property theft that goes on, particularly from offshore actors stealing contents, stealing business knowledge. I think we need to be treading carefully, not over regulating. Again, technology is moving so fast, there may be unintended consequences. Your previous guest, I think was right in in that regard. If you regulate something that is moving quick, well where does that, where does that place? But I think protecting Australian content against those big tech companies who should be paying for it because absolutely.

Patricia Karvelas

Thank you so much for joining us, Melissa.

Melissa McIntosh

Thank you.