VIDEO: Social media companies warned to comply with upcoming under-16s ban

JACOB GREBER, POLITICAL EDITOR:  It’s the last of what the Prime Minister regards as his biggest post-election wins since the election. Security deals with Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and last week’s environmental law overhaul.

Followed by a world-leading social media ban for under 16s that kicks into action in seven days.

ANIKA WELLS, COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER:  With one law, we can protect Generation Alpha from being sucked into purgatory by predatory algorithms described by the man who created the feature as behavioural cocaine.

JACOB GREBER:  While there are plenty of questions about how effective the ban will be – given the tech savviness of teenagers - the government insists it will change behaviour and slow online abuse of children.

ANIKA WELLS:  If a child has a social media account on 10 December, then that platform is breaking the law.

Teenage addiction was not a bug, it was a design feature, and on 10 December, there are going to be withdrawal symptoms.

JACOB GREBER:  Anika Wells – one of the government’s ministers on the rise – appeared at the press club today to defend the looming ban.

ANIKA WELLS:  This isn’t about punishing under 16s, or parents who’ve allowed under 16s to establish social media accounts up until 10^th December. That is legally possible in Australia. This is about putting the responsibility back on the social media platforms who have been able to operate essentially in a wild, wild west for 10, 15, 20 years.

JACOB GREBER:  But very quickly, attention swung to the minister’s trip to the United Nations in September. She was scheduled to fly with the Prime Minister but was forced to delay when the triple-zero crisis erupted.

JAMES MCGRATH, LIBERAL FRONTBENCHER:  It's really disappointing that we find out through estimates that Anika Wells, the Minister for Communications, spent $100,000 travelling to America in the midst of the triple-0 crisis.

JACOB GREBER:  That cost included flights for herself and two officials. Wells said the trip was justified to showcase Australia’s social media ban at an event with Emma Mason, whose daughter took her own life.

ANIKA WELLS:  I would refer you back to the fact that this is about one of the most important public policy challenges of our time. The event that Emma spoke at, the event that Let Them Be Kids and 36 Months hosted alongside the Prime Minister and I was attended by multiple world leaders, the president of the EU, and as we heard on the day, as we’ve heard since, really helped contribute to the global momentum in this space.

JIM CHALMERS, TREASURER: From my point of view, a very, very important trip, a very important way to represent Australia on the world stage, official travel consistent with the guidelines.

JACOB GREBER:  The government is standing by the Communication Minister’s trip, but it’s not entirely clear why her attendance at the UN event was needed, especially as the triple-zero crisis was still unresolved.

The Prime Minister was there, as was the Foreign Minister and ambassador Kevin Rudd.

She MC’d the event, introducing EU president Ursula von der Leyen and the Greek Prime Minister.

JAMES MCGRATH:  When Australians are facing a cost-of-living crisis, they don't want to find out that federal Labor ministers are spending $35,000 travelling to and from New York and that is just the minister's airfares.

JACOB GREBER:  Despite the criticism there is an argument that the trip was justified. After all, the minister’s legislation is trailblazing and the first of its kind around the world.

ANIKA WELLS:  You have seen a number of different jurisdictions come out from that moment, as recently as last week, to announce that they are going to do exactly what Australia is doing. They’re going to mimic Australia.

JACOB GREBER:  The row over the minister’s travel might once have passed unremarked but the fact it has flared up points to the ongoing political danger when cost-of-living pressures are still acute for many households.

It came as the government sought to put a positive spin on today’s GDP figures, which showed the economy grew less than expected - just 0.4 per cent in the September quarter.

JIM CHALMERS:  And that means in annual terms, this is the fastest growth in two years.

JACOB GREBER: Certainly, there are good signs – business investment hit the strongest pace in more than four years, and home building activity is up.

But discretionary spending has flatlined, a sign that consumers are struggling. And on a per-capita basis, the economy is barely growing.

TED O'BRIEN, SHADOW TREASURER:  The Treasurer has been saying now for months that he wants a private sector-led recovery, he’s not getting that. Again, here we see a jump in government spending.

JACOB GREBER: Meanwhile some bad tidings on interest rates with the Reserve Bank governor admitting they have not yet beaten inflation.

JANE HUME, LIBERAL SENATOR: Would you say that so far during this post-pandemic cycle, you are yet to return inflation sustainably to target?

MICHELE BULLOCK, RESERVE BANK GOVERNOR:  That is the whole purpose of the board, to try and bring it back sustainably. Have we done it yet? No, we haven’t done it yet, so we need to keep working on this.

JACOB GREBER:  Which means when the Reserve Bank meets next week there is very little prospect of a fourth interest rate cut this year, and the Governor is still wary about overseas developments.

MICHELE BULLOCK:  What happens in China is very important to us, and what we observe there is that the real estate market in China is still very much in the doldrums. At the moment, they’re managing to offset that with growth in other areas, but there’s still a risk to growth in China. I think that’s something that’s at the top of our mind as well.

JACOB GREBER:  Plenty for the Treasurer to think about as he puts the finishing touches on the upcoming end of year budget update.

SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: Treasurer Jim Chalmers joined me from Brisbane. 

Treasurer, welcome to 7.30. 

JIM CHALMERS, TREASURER: Thanks very much, Sarah. 

SARAH FERGUSON:  As we just saw Anika Wells spent $100,000 flying herself and two others to New York to host an event on Australia’s social media ban. You've defended the cost on the grounds that that was a very important event. In the current climate however, does that cost pass the pub test? 

JIM CHALMERS:  Look, that's for others to judge, but from my point of view, it's official travel. It's well within the guidelines, and as you rightly anticipate, this is a really important opportunity for Australia in the world. 

And of course, our views should be heard in the world on this important change, which is all about making sure that our kids are safe when they're online. That's what this is about and the minister doesn't determine the cost of these sorts of visits within the guidelines, official travel, and for an important purpose. 

SARAH FERGUSON:  Now, you've been accentuating the positives through today of the national accounts figures, but they also show that productivity remains a central challenge for the economy. Do we have to accept a lower speed economy for the foreseeable future in Australia? 

JIM CHALMERS:  No, I don't believe so. And the government's economic plan is all about lifting the speed limits on the economy, trying to make it more productive, more resilient over time. 

But we've got to recognise that you can't turn these things around overnight. The productivity challenge has been there for the best part of two decades, and it'll take more than a couple of years to turn around. 

But I have to contest the characterisation there, Sarah, because what we saw in the numbers today was the fourth consecutive quarter of productivity growth. We saw productivity growth at 0.8 per cent in the market sector, 1.1 per cent. Obviously, we need it to be better than that and in a more sustained way, but those four quarters of continuous productivity growth in the circumstances has been much better than the situation that we saw for much of the past decade or two. 

SARAH FERGUSON:  But would you claim that Australia is winning with its productivity challenge? Would you say that to economists and analysts throughout the country? 

JIM CHALMERS:  I'd say that today's numbers represent good progress. One of the reasons why I have accentuated the positive today, why I do see these national accounts as positive and as promising is because productivity ticked up again for the fourth consecutive quarter. 

But overwhelmingly, the big, big story out of these national accounts is the stunning improvement in new business investment alongside very welcome growth in investment in housing as well. 

And that's why the key takeout from these national accounts is the way that the private sector has been leading the growth in our economy, the fastest annual growth in a couple of years now led by the private sector, and particularly by new business investment, investment in homes and coming along with that welcome the uptick in productivity. 

Now, we're not getting carried away about that uptick in productivity. It can bounce around from quarter to quarter, but you'd rather have four consecutive quarters of growth than the alternative. And so, I see it as an encouraging in that light. 

SARAH FERGUSON:  Now, private sector spending, as you just said, it has gone up, but so too has government spending. It rose at 0.8 per cent in the quarter. How much pressure is that putting on you as you plan for your budget next year? 

JIM CHALMERS:  Well, first of all, the story of 2025 has been that the private sector has been creating the growth in our economy. 

Now, when it comes to public spending, obviously in every budget that we do and every budget update, we try and manage it as responsibly as we can. 

That means continuing to find savings where we can to fund priority areas like strengthening Medicare or lifting bulk billing or building urgent care clinics or cutting income taxes three times. 

So the fiscal pressures are always there. The pressures on the budget are always there, but the overwhelming takeout from today's national accounts is that government spending, public spending is making much less of a contribution to economic growth. The private sector is doing all of the heavy lifting, and that's a good thing. 

SARAH FERGUSON:  But there are warnings everywhere about the need to consolidate, to bring down government spending. You won't accept the term austerity when it's put to you. What word would you use to describe the cuts you're going to have to make at the next budget 

JIM CHALMERS: Responsible and that's the approach that we've taken to all of the other budgets as well. It's not often recognised, Sarah, that we found a hundred billion dollars in savings. That's been a key part already of delivering those two surpluses in our first two years, a much smaller deficit in our third year.

But there's almost always more work to do. The pressures on the budget are intensifying rather than easing. The task for us is to continue to manage the budget in a responsible way, and that's what people can expect to see in the midyear budget update and also in the budget in May. 

SARAH FERGUSON:  What happens to your economic credibility if the next interest rate move is up? 

JIM CHALMERS:  Well, you know that I don't provide a sort of a running commentary on decisions taken independently by the Reserve Bank. 

SARAH FERGUSON:  I think the question is, the question is how it will reflect on you. 

JIM CHALMERS:  Well, obviously I'm not going to get into those sorts of hypotheticals because I don't pre-empt or predict those decisions taken independently by the Reserve Bank or its board. 

I think you and I have had this exchange on a number of occasions over the years, Sarah. The point I would make is this, our job is to manage the budget in the most responsible way that we can. That is what we are doing. 

We know that there are still challenges. Inflation is persistent. The global environment is incredibly volatile and unpredictable. And so just like we did in the first four budgets, the fifth budget will be about responsible economic management. The Reserve Bank will take its decisions independently. I'm focused on my part of this, which is to make sure we're getting value for money for budget, making sure that we're making a contribution to this welcome uptick in growth, which is coming from the private sector. 

SARAH FERGUSON:  The Coalition has essentially put all its political chips on a bet that electricity prices won't come down, and through that they will find a path back to government. How much of the Albanese Government's success now is riding on energy prices coming down? 

JIM CHALMERS:  Well, first of all, I think obviously they would like energy prices to be higher for political reasons. But also, we know that from their policy, if they abandoned net zero, that would be a recipe for upward pressure on prices, not downward pressure on prices. 

I saw you fact check that on your program and on your social media not that long ago and that's because as we think about the ways that these ageing assets are becoming less and less reliable, the coal fired part of our system, the cheapest way to replace that energy is with reliable, renewable, cleaner and cheaper energy, which is central to our policy. 

And so, yes, for political reasons, the Coalition want Australians to be under more and more pressure, whether it's electricity prices or in other ways. 

They're always talking down the economy. And when they do, they diminish the progress that Australians have made together but our policy gives Australians a better chance of putting that downward pressure on prices over the medium and long-term. The Coalition's policy is a recipe for higher power prices, not lower prices. 

SARAH FERGUSON: Yesterday, the Government came out with its AI plan. It's making a very big bet on AI investment in Australia, especially on data centres. But I want to draw your attention to the head of one of Australia's biggest domestic data centre companies, AirTrunk. You'll be familiar with him. He says that slow planning approvals are a major headache in Australia. It's much harder here to build those data centres than it is elsewhere in Asia. Are you going to have to do something drastic to change the planning approval crisis? 

JIM CHALMERS:  Well, a couple of things about that. I mean, first of all, if you look at the national accounts today, the investment in data and technology is absolutely galloping already. 

I mean, it's a big reason why the business investment numbers were so strong and a big reason why we saw the fastest annual economic growth for a couple of years now. So a lot of that investment is already flowing, but we've acknowledged on other occasions, indeed, in and around the economic reform roundtable that Australia needs to get much better and quicker when it comes to approvals. Already the EPBC environmental law reforms will be part of that story. 

Already we've announced a whole bunch of other measures in the Foreign Investment Review Board space and in other areas to make sure that we're getting those approvals done as quickly as possible so that we're competing for this global investment. 

But I think any objective observer of the numbers that we saw released earlier today would conclude Australia is already an incredibly attractive destination for AI infrastructure, for data centres, and for technology more broadly. We want that investment. We need that investment. We're encouraged by today's numbers, and we will make the planning regime, the approvals regime as fast as we responsibly can. 

SARAH FERGUSON:  Jim Chalmers, I hope the head of AirTrunk is watching that answer. In the meantime, wish you safe travels to New Zealand. Thank you very much indeed. 

JIM CHALMERS:  Thanks so much, Sarah.