Albanese government pushes forward with prescription medicine cap at $25
The major federal election promise will also see the price of PBS scripts frozen at its current level of $7.70 for pensioners until 2030.
The changes will cost taxpayers $200 million per year, but are likely to be popular with voters.
The Coalition matched the policy during the election and is likely to see the bill pass through parliament relatively quickly.
However, Labor used the policy during the federal campaign in April and May to run a scare campaign accusing Peter Dutton and the Opposition of being 'Trump-Lite' and wanting a US style health system.
The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, says: 'The size of your bank balance shouldn't determine the quality of your healthcare'.
'We said we would make cheaper medicines even cheaper - that is exactly what we are doing,' Albanese said.
'This is another example of cost of living relief that helps every Australian.
The Health Minister, Mark Butler, says the last time PBS medicines cost no more than $25 was 2004 – more than 20 years ago.
'The Albanese Government has been focused on delivering cheaper medicines for Australians,' Butler said.
'Cheaper medicines are good for the hip pocket and good for your health.'
The Albanese Government has started the first two sitting weeks of its second term trying to keep the focus on its election promises.
Last week it introduced bills to cut HECS debt by 20 percent, entrench penalty rates in workplace agreements, and safety reforms for the childcare sector.
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The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
Social media ban Australia: How new laws will work and how they could fail
Seven months later, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant challenged that description, sharing research with Wells in late June that said four in 10 young teenagers had been exposed to harmful content, such as eating-disorder videos, on YouTube. Loading That triggered an intense lobbying campaign by YouTube. The website's owner, Google, sent Wells a legal letter flagging it would consider High Court action, arguing the ban violated the implied constitutional right of freedom of political communication. There is a lot at stake for the company. Google reported $8.4 billion in gross revenue from Australia in 2022, the last year it made that figure available, giving it the motivation and resources to fight efforts to restrict access from new, young users to one of the company's key online services. Then Australian children's music royalty got involved. The Wiggles' chief executive Kate Chiodo visited Wells and attempted to appeal to her as a mother of three young children by arguing YouTube's inclusion in the ban would restrict access to kids' shows. Wells was not persuaded. 'I said to them, 'you're arguing that my four-year-old twins' right to a YouTube login is more important than the fact that four out of 10 of their peers will experience online harm on YouTube',' Wells said on Wednesday. Responding to this masthead's request for comment, the Wiggles linked to a Facebook post from Wells – made three years ago – showing a photo of her twin sons and captioned that she handled the parliament by having baby gates and 'The Wiggles on YouTube'. 'Video platforms like YouTube, when used to watch trusted children's programs, function differently to social media,' a Wiggles spokesperson said. 'Millions of Australian parents (including Minister Wells) and their children watch the Wiggles on YouTube much like they would on smart TVs, not as part of a social media feed.' YouTube said in a statement it was considering its legal options, and on Thursday Google cancelled a parliamentary concert (that Wells was intending to attend as communications minister) featuring rock band the Rubens. The company said it was out of respect for the grieving parents at Wednesday's press conference. Evans' anger at YouTube has never abated. Liv was 15 when she died by taking her own life after her battle with anorexia. A lover of cheerleading, animals, art and nature, her early childhood was full of fun and learning. Evans said he noticed a change in Liv when she was 13 and began using Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube. The browsing on YouTube began with cat videos, then cooking, to healthier recipes, then fitness tips, before it took a darker turn towards how to remain thin. 'She may not be recovered, but I think she would still be here if it weren't for YouTube,' Robb said. YouTube has argued there is substantial evidence that it is used regularly for educational purposes, citing a 2024 survey that found 84 per cent of teachers use the platform for lessons. Loading YouTube Australia and New Zealand public policy manager Rachel Lord said the survey revealed 85 per cent of children and 68 per cent of parents said the platform was appropriate for under 15s, in contrast to other social media companies. 'YouTube is not a social media platform; it is a video-sharing platform with a library of free, high-quality content, and TV screens are increasingly the most popular place to watch,' Lord said in June, following the eSafety commissioner's advice. But there is deep disagreement about how effective a social media ban will be in protecting young people. The government has handed responsibility for enforcement to tech platforms, with big fines if they do not comply. But anyone, including young children, will still be able to access services that do not require a login. This masthead conducted an experiment using both YouTube and TikTok without an account, scrolling through videos via a desktop with private browsing to avoid the companies relying on previous search history. YouTube delivered videos designed to trigger engagement that were a far cry from educational, but did not raise obvious red flags. On TikTok, however, in the first three minutes of scrolling, sexualised content, misogynistic messaging and videos themed around death appeared. None were explicitly pornographic or violent, and this masthead does not suggest the experiment was scientific or would be the same for every user. But the process indicates how internet platforms retain an incentive to show users troubling content to attract their attention even without a login. Platforms typically serve more videos to a user depending on the preferences they indicate. 'It is difficult to comment on your experiment without knowing the conditions or controls in place when it was conducted,' a TikTok spokeswoman said. 'Everything on TikTok is bound by our strict community guidelines regardless of whether someone is logged in or not. We proactively remove content that breaches those guidelines and, in fact, removed more than 926,000 videos in Australia in [the first quarter of] 2025 alone.' University of Sydney law professor Anne Twomey said the government's claim to parents that it had their back in protecting kids from social media was 'rubbish' because the ban has numerous carve-outs and exceptions, including for gaming and messaging. 'It is very unlikely all the children will be outside playing footy in the garden. It exempts, for example, online gaming, so if Jonny is shut away in his bedroom doing online gaming, he will keep doing that,' she said. 'There is nothing here that gets kids off their computers into the garden. 'Bullying will still happen by using messaging apps, it's not going to stop kids having their sleep disrupted, it doesn't do any of that.' Loading The legislation also does not explain to tech companies what constitutes 'reasonable steps' to prevent under 16s from accessing social media, Twomey said. 'That's a problem for the platforms to deal with because they are entering into the area of the unknown, which is unusual with laws,' she said. Facial estimation technology and ID verification are some of the ways being proposed to ensure children cannot access social media. Twomey said the government risks a backlash because the policy was sold to the Australian public as a way to take kids away from technology. 'You can still watch as many videos on as many harmful issues as you like,' she said. 'What the law means is you can't comment, can't like or dislike or upload your videos.' Macquarie University psychologist Danielle Einstein disagrees, arguing it will be like banning alcohol for children under 18, creating a cultural understanding that social media at a young age has potentially life-altering affects. 'At the basis of it all, it's their understanding of the risks and what their view of alcohol is, and that's what we need to do with social media, is we need to change everyone's view of social media.' Einstein – whose research played a role in driving the campaign from advocacy group 36 Months that the parents who stood with Albanese are linked to – said the new laws have already changed people's views on how technology should be a part of children's lives and the next step should be presenting a public health campaign to young people.
ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Why Hannah Ferguson and Maria Ressa are sounding the alarm about social media disinformation
When Hannah Ferguson started Cheek Media five years ago, she wanted to create space for young Australians to engage with the deeply fun and the deeply serious. Like many gen zs, she felt let down by legacy media, and believed there was a better way to connect young people with politics and news. Fast forward to the present, Hannah Ferguson's biting political commentary and social media prowess have helped her amass a following of more 290,000 across her Cheek Media and personal Instagram accounts. Before Australia's 2025 federal election, more than 4 million people viewed Ms Ferguson's content, with thousands watching a "get ready with me" reel before her interview with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. "[Social media has] been an incredible tool for change and starting social impact conversations around politics, education and media literacy," she tells ABC TV's Compass. While Ms Ferguson is proud of organically building an online community — and one that cares deeply about social, political and feminist issues — she says that being a social media commentator has come at a cost. "Trying to lead hopeful conversations [has] come with threats to my life, threats to my safety, threats to my family," she says. She is also wary of the broader implications of social media. "The algorithms push inflammatory material, and we are so used to that," she says. Despite her online success, Ms Ferguson says there have been times when she's looked in the mirror and asked: "Is this doing more harm than good?" "The way that information is spreading right now is so volatile and so inflammatory and divided that we do not have a sense of a shared truth," she says. Ms Ferguson points to how social media has helped fuel political instability in places such as the United States. "Our system of compulsory preferential voting is inherently different to the United States, but to say [Trump-style politics] couldn't happen here is naïve," she says. "We need to be aware about what we're consuming and how that can look in Australia." Like Ms Ferguson, Philippines-based investigative journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa is alarmed by the pollution of our information ecosystem. She's reported from war zones, written about terrorism and online radicalisation, and risked her life fighting for press freedom. For her, social media poses an existential threat because of the way it proliferates lies. Ms Ressa's fears are not unfounded. A MIT study from 2018 found that lies travelled six times faster than the facts on Twitter. That was before Elon Musk took over the platform and fired moderators tracking hate and other harmful content. As the co-founder of the Philippines' first digital news outlet, Rappler, Ms Ressa knows the real-world consequences of disinformation. Back in 2016, she and her team witnessed how social media was weaponised after the election of "strongman" president Rodrigo Duterte. Rappler uncovered an online network of bots, fake accounts and influencers that supported Duterte and his anti-drug campaign that killed thousands of Filipinos. When Ms Ressa published the story, both she and Rappler were viciously attacked online. She says a smear campaign was launched against the news group, and she was bombarded with an average of 90 hate messages per hour. This spilled into the real-world, when Ms Ressa was arrested for various charges, including tax evasion and cyber libel. She faced cumulative jail sentences of up to 100 years, with Amnesty International calling it "brazenly politically motivated". While Ms Ressa has been acquitted of most charges, her speaking out still comes with risk. And yet, she remains a vocal critic of big tech and its sustained role in the undermining of modern democracies. Experts and whistleblowers from social media companies have raised similar concerns. Online algorithms can manipulate our emotions, stoke division, and set the stage for violence and political unrest. Last year, riots erupted across England after social media posts falsely accused a Muslim asylum seeker of stabbing three young girls in Southport. It exemplified how platforms can amplify hate and fracture social cohesion. These problems are surfacing on Australian shores, too. National technology reporter Ange Lavoipierre and ABC NEWS Verify discovered that a Pro-Russian news website attempted to "poison" AI chatbots with propaganda in this lead up to the 2025 federal election. An audit found that 16.66 per cent of the chatbots' answers amplified the false narrative they were fed. This included disinformation related to Australian politics. For instance, when asked about an "Australian Muslim Party" — which does not exist — two AI models returned answers suggesting it did. The Australian government attempted to address this issue through the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill 2024, but it failed to pass through Parliament. Criticism of the bill came from all sides. It ranged from fears over the suppression of free speech to concerns about poor implementation and government overreach. But there is some social media legislation coming into effect. From December, Australians under the age of 16 will be banned from accessing social media, now including YouTube. Maria Ressa supports regulation, but says more can be done. She wants to see the design of social media platforms overhauled, and new restrictions on the collection of users' data. Working alongside her Nobel Peace Prize counterpart Dmitry Muratov, she has devised an ambitious 10-point plan to tackle this. She also believes journalists, institutions and governments need to work together to protect the integrity of facts and the future of democracy. "Without facts, you can't have truth, without truth, you can't have trust," she warns. "Without these three things, you can't have a shared reality. Watch All Eyes On Big Tech on Compass tonight at 6:30pm on ABC TV and iview.
SBS Australia
an hour ago
- SBS Australia
From fleeing war to getting engaged in 10 days: Meet five of parliament's newest faces
Australia's federal parliament has welcomed almost 40 new parliamentarians, among whom are ex mortuary workers, former diplomats and those who have fled war. The May election brought to Canberra greater numbers of women — with 112 women across the two houses now just slightly trailing men at 114 — and people from diverse cultural backgrounds. There are now eight First Nations politicians, an increase of two from the last parliament. As the dust settled on the first sitting fortnight, SBS News spoke to five new senators and MPs. Here's what we found out. Senator for SA Charlotte Walker Australia's youngest senator, Charlotte Walker, thinks her perspective makes her particularly qualified for the job, after an unlikely win in the third spot on Labor's ticket in South Australia. The 21-year-old has gone from uploading make-up tutorials to sitting in parliament and chatting policy while playing Minecraft to reach electorally important younger voters. "Obviously, I am younger than my colleagues, it's no secret, but I've still got my own experiences, and I think that my experience shouldn't be devalued just because of my age," she told SBS News. That experience includes growing up in the country town of Yankallila, where she witnessed a domestic violence crisis and recalled seeing children miss class in primary school due to fights going on at home or parents fleeing abusive relationships. Charlotte Walker is Australia's youngest senator. Source: SBS News / Rania Yallop Walker says that, outside of government funding for services, there needs to be an shift in attitudes to domestic and family violence and encourages Australians to call out unacceptable behaviour by friends or family. "It might have just been a friendly joke, and there wasn't any bad intention there, but we really need to be calling people out when we see things like this. That's where it starts," she said. Promising to advocate for the interests of fellow young Australians, she said: "we hear you and we will act on your demands for a better future." LISTEN TO Last week, Walker cited young people's fears of finding a rental property or being able to afford moving out of their childhood homes and said climate change wasn't "a matter of faith or belief" for young people but "hard fact". Senator for NSW Jess Collins Liberal senator Jess Collins insists her election victory shows that suggestions women in the Coalition face a glass cliff or are put in unwinnable seats "is a total myth". She highlights the number of "amazing female candidates", arguing the NSW branch would have been "close to gender parity" if the party had done better at the election. In a first speech that drew several laughs, Collins revealed she got engaged to now-husband Ben only 10 days after their first date — although she did note they had been friends for decades beforehand. Liberal senator Jess Collins says there is no "glass ceiling" for women in the party. Source: SBS News / James Smillie After having four children in as many years, her time as a stay-at-home mum has informed her passion for recognising the "contribution of the family", including changes to the tax system. She said we need to "flip the script" on childcare subsidies, suggesting that — instead of pumping billions into the subsidy system — the government should make fees for child care while a parent is at work tax deductible. "When you lodge a tax return at the end of the year, you can apply all of your childcare fees against the money that you earned, and that'll effectively bring down the tax that you pay," she told SBS News. With a PhD in anthropology and fond memories of her research visits to Papua New Guinea, Collins would like to see development aid programs trickle down more effectively to people on the ground. She emphasised the importance of links from "community to community, rather than government to government". The New Zealand-born senator is close to fulfilling another dream. Collins hopes to acquire her first set of footy boots soon, enthusiastically telling SBS she played touch footy for the second time in her life with colleagues on a dewy Canberra morning during the first sitting week. Banks MP Zhi Soon Zhi Soon still finds it "a bit surreal" to sit in the chamber as the MP for the Sydney seat of Banks, having won the seat — held by the Liberals since 2013 — on his second go. The Malaysian-born former diplomat, previously stationed in Afghanistan, is inspired to apply lessons learned from other countries and make Australia "an education superpower". Currently looking at early childhood options for eight-month-old daughter Dorothy, he is passionate about "making sure that every child in this country can access mobile childhood education right through to schooling from primary school to secondary school". Banks MP Zhi Soon is passionate about education access. Source: SBS News / Rania Yallop He says Australia can learn from the likes of South Korea, Singapore and Finland. While Soon was elected to a suburban Sydney electorate, he's no stranger to getting his hands dirty, with his in-laws often putting him to work on the farm. "A bit of everything, from feeding potty lambs to chipping burrs [removing weeds], mending fences and helping out with drenching [giving sheep medication to prevent parasites], is pretty commonplace when I go out there," he said. In his first speech, Soon said multiculturalism is more than a word. Elaborating to SBS News, he recalled different families that have treated his "with such warmth". "It's about bringing people together, no matter what background you come from and being able to share that culture with each other". This included food, and he said he grew up on Lebanese kibbeh. Calwell MP Basem Abdo New father Basem Abdo brought home his son Noah on election day, 3 May, a joy compounded by keeping the Victorian seat of Calwell in Labor's hands after a tight race that involved 13 candidates. While his focus is steadfast on his community, he finds being separated from the four-month-old tough, but says he has unlocked a new skill: "sleeping standing up". In an emotional first speech, Abdo shared several trials, from leaving Kuwait in 1990 at the outbreak of the First Gulf War to more recently, losing his mother. Basem Adbo has experienced the effects of war first-hand. Source: SBS News / Rania Yallop His memories of buildings shaking and taping windows, as well as being "confronted by Israeli occupation" during a 2011 visit to the the occupied West Bank , inform his advice to colleagues about war. "When we turn off our television screens, those things are still happening. And it's incumbent on all of us to consider that and to consider the long-term view of things when we're trying to reshape things," he told SBS News. Abdo says he will champion issues of his community inside the private caucus process, including Palestinian statehood, which he views as more than symbolic. "It's the right of self-determination. I would view it as a right, not as just symbolism," he said. The first MP of Palestinian heritage represents a diverse electorate, with one in four residents Muslim. He looks forward to tackling economic challenges important to his community, including aligning "skills policy with the jobs of the future". "It's not just for young people coming out of high school, it's also people in middle age [who are] going to reskill. As we transition the economy, we don't want a generation gap," he said. Barton MP Ash Ambihaipaher The young lawyer, who won the safe Labor seat of Barton in Sydney, is proud to have been raised by a diverse community from her Tamil Sri Lankan uncle, Thiru, to an Italian family that taught her to "brine olives, make salami and roast chestnuts". She used her inaugural speech to recognise how much Barton has changed, highlighting that Australia's first prime minister Edmund Barton, for whom the seat is named, championed the White Australia policy, while over half of the seat's residents are now born overseas. "I think pointing it out was just to illustrate that we as a community, nationally, Australia has evolved, and that's okay, and it's about learning from the past," she told SBS News. The seat was previously held by former minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney, who retired from parliament at the election. Ambihaipaher describes being "personally devastated" by the failure of the Voice to Parliament referendum. However, she thinks a lack of information and understanding within her community highlights an opportunity to bridge an education gap about "what we're trying to achieve". Ash Ambihaipaher says she "lives and breathes multiculturalism". Source: SBS News / Rania Yallop "If we don't fill that gap with education and truth-telling and talking about what has happened, then we've lost. We're already on the back foot in that sense," she said. Adding later, "I think we end up living in little silos, and I think it's important that any representative should be a conduit to make sure that people understand each other's issues." Chatting to SBS amid the chaos of the first parliamentary fortnight, Ambihaipaher recalls "finding peace" and moments of reflection in a previous job, working in a mortuary. "When there's a lot going on in in this world you do reflect on those times when you're in the mortuary, it's very quiet. You've just got this little crackling radio in the background. It is a very peaceful place," she said.
