Prime Minister Anthony Albanese celebrates passage of world-first social media ban

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is celebrating the passage of his world-first social media ban while admitting Labor has more “work to do” to ease cost-of-living pressure as Federal Parliament rises for the summer break.

Mr Albanese ended the parliamentary year on a high after the Senate sat late into Thursday night to pass 31 bills, including a world-first laws to ban children under-16 accessing social media.

The lower house sat first thing on Friday morning to rubber-stamp the laws. In a marathon sitting week, the Senate passed 45 pieces of legislation, 11 of them Treasury bills.

“My government has always been focussed on making Australians lives better. We know that we have more work to do but we are making progress. We understand the pressure that people are under as a result the global inflation surge,” a triumphant PM told reporters in Canberra.

“But the action that my government has taken..is making a positive difference,” he said. “My message is we have your back.”

Among the wins Mr Albanese was keen to promote were new housing bills the government says will open up 80,000 new homes for rentals, and help 40,000 Australians to buy a home.

Bills passed this week would also give fairer wages for childcare workers, and created tens of thousands of new jobs in manufacturing, powered by clean energy through the Future Made in Australian plan, he said.

The social media ban, which won’t come into effect for 12 months, will force the tech giants running TikTok, Facebook, X and Snapchat to take “reasonable steps” to prevent under-16s using their platforms.

The Prime Minister dismissed concerns - raised by major tech companies and advocacy groups - that the legislation had been rushed and risked cutting off vulnerable children from online peer support groups.

“Social media is doing harm to our children and today as a direct result of our legislation…parents can have a different discussion with their young ones, a different discussion that will result in better outcomes and less harm for young Australians.,” Mr Albanese said from Parliament House.

“Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them.

“We’ve got your back, is our message to Australian parents.”

On a chaotic final sitting day on Thursday, the Greens agreed to support pass laws to overhaul the Reserve Bank’s structure and set up the Future Made in Australia plan after securing $500 million to upgrade social housing properties and a commitment the domestic manufacturing fund would not finance fossil fuel projects.

Treasury bills accounted for roughly one quarter of the legislation passed this week.

“This is a very big week for economic reform right across the board. Tax reform, housing, Super objective, Future Made in Australia, consumers protection in buy now, pay later, competition policy, getting a better deal for people at the checkout and the Reserve Bank reforms as well,” said Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers.

“This is what progress and delivery looks like. We have been able to focus primarily on the cost of living and the fight against inflation at the same time as we keep the wheels of economic reform turning,” he said.

“Our strategy has three parts – relief, repair and reform, and last night we took huge steps when it comes to economic reform in our economy.”

Labor struck separate with the Coalition to pass the social media and draconian deportation powers for non-citizens.

The government has been accused by migrant advocacy groups and human rights lawyers of rushing through a controversial “Trump-style” trio of migration Bills.

The package grants new powers to pay third countries to receive non-citizens, introduces criminal penalties for non-citizens who refuse to facilitate their own deportation and allows for new, strict curbs on phones in immigration detention centres.

Mr Albanese rebutted the suggestion from critics that the government had abandoned multicultural communities.

“We support our multicultural communities each and every day. We are a government that wants an inclusive Australia…but we understand as well that our migration system needs to be robust and not manipulated.”

Critics have also raised alarm about the lack of transparency over which third countries the government may try to send non-citizens to.

Asked if the government will only do deals with signatories of the refugee convention, the PM’s answer was brief.

“I will implement our legislation,” he said.

The week ended without deals to create a federal environment protection agency or reforms to get big money out of politics.

More to come