Transcript - Sky News The Kenny Report - 25 November 2025

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

25 November 2025

Transcript 

Sky News – The Kenny Report

Topics: Linda Reynolds; Fiona Brown; Katy Gallagher; Penny Wong; social media; digital ID.

E&EO … 

Kenny

Canberra now: catch up with the Shadow Communications Minister, Melissa McIntosh. Thanks for joining us, Melissa. You would have followed this case. Surely, human decency demands that the Prime Minister and Senator Wong in particular, and Gallagher owe an apology to Fiona Brown and Linda Reynolds.

McIntosh

Thanks, Chris. I want to acknowledge the strength in that piece that you've put together and your opening, and you were right. It's time the Prime Minister and the senators did the right thing. Sometimes feels like there's one sort of rule for when it comes to Labor women, for the women of Australia, but there's another rule for Conservative women and it's okay to come after us.

And they went after Linda, and you can see the pain on her face in that interview and when she's described what’s - what she's gone through. And that interview with the Prime Minister where he's ducking and weaving is extraordinary. He played a part in coming after Linda and her chief of staff. He allowed his senators to do what they did.

So, if he wanted to play politics at the time along with his colleagues, well, you know, he should be prepared to front up to both Linda and her chief of staff and the Australian people on the truth - on the truth, because this is what it's about.

Kenny

Yeah, the truth matters. It's disgusting what happened to them. And we'll stay on it. We'll definitely stay on it, and we'll stay on the Prime Minister over it. Let's come back to political issues at the moment in your portfolio and the social media ban being trumpeted now around the world. December 10 is the D-Day. Do we have any sense that we should be confident about the way this is going to be implemented?

McIntosh

My question now to the government is what does success actually look like? Because when you've got platforms still being dribbled in and it's so late in the game, when we're now learning that platforms could compel Australians to use digital ID, and with Metta, they've said if they can't verify someone's age, they then they will be asking for a birth certificate or a driver's licence and we don't know where that data is going to be stored.

They'll be using a third-party provider to obtain that data. So, there's a big question mark around - we already know Australians hate the idea of digital ID.

Kenny

Yeah.

McIntosh

But around the storage of people's data, it's very sensitive information. So, it's moving beyond the concept, which we all agree with, around protecting kids, into something else that it was never meant to be about.

Kenny

And the problem is, I suppose once you hand over that data, it's of no use to them if you're over 16. Once you're over 16. But they could hang on to it.

McIntosh

And how long are they going to hang onto it for? Speaking to some of the platforms, I'm hearing the third party provider will destroy it pretty quickly, but we don't know what pretty quickly actually means.

Kenny

Yeah.

McIntosh

And as I said, the idea that your data is stored overseas in an offshore data centre is just not acceptable. The Minister for Communications promised Australians - she even put it on her social media, calling it a myth that people would be required to show digital ID. And now we're finding, once again with this government is the actual truth. They're not telling the Australian people the truth.

Kenny

Melissa McIntosh, thanks so much for joining us.