Key events
Good morning,
Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
The government will be discussing its decision this morning to include YouTube in its social media ban for under 16s – though the more tightly curated YouTube kids will be spared.
And this morning the UK has increased pressure on Israel, declaring it will recognise a Palestinian state later this year unless Israel takes urgent steps to commit to peace. We’ll be following all local reaction to that this morning.
Stay with us, it’s going to be another busy day!
Google has reacted to the government’s decision to include YouTube in the under 16s social media ban (though YouTube kids will be exempt).
The search engine giant says it will “consider next steps”, after it threatened to sue the government over the weekend if it was included in the ban, before the decision was announced.
Google said in a statement that YouTube is “not social media”.
We share the Government’s goal of addressing and reducing online harms. Our position remains clear: YouTube is a video sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content, increasingly viewed on TV screens. It’s not social media.
The Government’s announcement today reverses a clear, public commitment to exclude YouTube from this ban. We will consider next steps and will continue to engage with the Government.
Jordyn Beazley
Chris Bowen was also asked on 7.30 for his reaction to the decision by the UK prime minister to recall his cabinet from their summer break for an emergency meeting on the Gaza crisis.
Asked if Australia, as a middle power, would join a joint effort to ensure more aid gets into Gaza, Bowen said:
I think the best thing I can do, Sarah, is very warmly and strongly and positively point you to the prime minister’s comments.
One, his abhorrence at what has been happening in Gaza in recent times, his condemnation of that action and his statements about Australia’s role in the pathway going forward. A sensible pathway for Australia to work towards the recognition of Palestine at the right time but also his abhorrence at the breaches of international law.
There is a high degree of coordination between Australia and like-minded countries, or middle powers as you correctly put it. There is a very high degree of coordination there and you should expect that to continue. Now, I’m not going to comment on the details of what Keir Starmer may or may not be doing because that’s a matter for the United Kingdom. Obviously, we would respond in due course.
Jordyn Beazley
The minister for climate change and energy, Chris Bowen, appeared on ABC’s 7.30 last night and was asked about calls by a top UN official for Australia to go “big” on its 2035 emissions reduction target.
Simon Stiell, who is visiting several countries ahead of the Cop30 climate conference in Brazil in November, said in a speech in Sydney on Monday the 2035 target would be a defining moment for Australia.
He urged the government to not pick a “bog-standard” number but to “go for what’s smart by going big”.
Bowen said:
We have a very rigorous process [and] world’s best practice for setting a climate target.
We agree a good, strong target is good economic policy and it also has to be achievable, a target we can set out and achieve. Anybody can set a high target with no plan to get there. That’s not the approach our government has taken and not the approach we’ll take in the future.
Guardian Australia’s Essential poll is out this morning, and the top line is our general scepticism over whether we’ll ever see the US deliver a nuclear submarine to the Australian navy.
But as always the poll asked a range of questions. Other interesting results include:
-
Only 15% of Australians believe Israel is justified in continuing its military action in Gaza. Some 41% of voters want Israel to permanently withdraw its military action, while 25% want a temporary ceasefire.
-
31% of voters say Australia should consider levelling our own tariffs on the US, while 45% say we should prioritise staying on good terms with Trump and keep negotiating for exemptions.
You can read the full story here:
Sarah Basford Canales
More from Sarah on last night’s Senate motion.
Liberal frontbencher, Maria Kovacic, stood to speak in support of the motion, saying that while it was important to protect children from online harm, “ensuring every adult logs into an account to browse the internet is taking the esafety commissioner’s power to a new level, which must be debated and scrutinised further”.
Corinne Mulholland, a newly elected Labor senator, questioned why senators would be against a law that “helps to prevent illegal content from spreading by restricting access to and the distribution of harmful content”.
To me, it all makes just common sense, so I’m not sure why it’s so controversial … The most ludicrous thing is wasting our time in the Senate when we can be getting on with the real business of debating legislation.
Read more here:
Senate votes against search engine ID checks
Sarah Basford Canales
The Senate voted last night to pass an urgency motion against new rules requiring search engines, such as Google, to undertake user identity checks by the end of the year.
To refresh your memory, the previous parliament passed rules banning under-16s from many social media sites. As a result, a number of platforms are now required to verify a user’s age by the end of the year with a federal government trial of age assurance systems still underway.
Put forward by United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet on Tuesday night, the urgency motion read:
“The need to recognise that the internet search engine services online safety code, which requires age assurance measures for account holders of search engines, must be amended as it represents another layer of digital surveillance, dressed up as child protection and raises many privacy issues.”
It was supported by the Coalition, the Greens, One Nation and other crossbenchers – including David Pocock, Lidia Thorpe and Fatima Payman – with only Labor senators opposing it. The final vote was 38 ayes and 25 noes.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live politics blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the best of the overnight stories before Krishani Dhanji picks it up.
There was some evening activity in the Senate last night as senators voted to pass an urgency motion against rules requiring search engines, such as Google, to undertake user identity checks by the end of the year. More details coming up.
Chris Bowen appeared on 7.30 last night when he was grilled about climate policy but also about the UK government’s decision to hold an emergency cabinet meeting about Gaza. The energy minister played that question with a straight bat but the fact that the UK has announced overnight that it will recognise Palestine unless Isrel agrees a truce will increase calls today for Australia to follow suit. More coming up.
Plus the latest Essential poll shows that barely one in seven Australians back Israel’s military action in Gaza. More on that soon too.
