WATCH LIVE: Prime Minister faces grilling on cost of living and social media ban in Question Time
Inflation data released today shows consumer prices rose at an annual rate of 2.1 per cent in the June quarter, down from 2.4 per cent in March as markets now anticipate a near-certain rate cut in August.
Mr Gazard warned that policies in industrial relations under the current Labor government have played a significant role droving inflation higher in the first place.
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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
2 hours 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.
Sky News AU
3 hours ago
- Sky News AU
'It's Covid all over again': Labor bending at the knee to eSafety Commissioner's advice on YouTube ban while turning blind eye to our freedom, education
There is nothing in politics more ominous than a government that wants to be seen to be 'doing something'. A government that feels something must be done on a controversial topic is likely to act so boldly and so quickly that they don't have time to consider the consequences, and those who suffer are left to pick up the pieces. The popular thing to do these days is find an expert on an issue and outsource all responsibility on policy to them. Trusting an expert sounds nice - they know a lot and often have a reassuring 'Dr' at the start of their name. It's never the case that this expert is democratically elected or answerable to the people that their decisions affect. They are there for the government to hide behind - don't look at us, we had to do whatever the expert told us to. This was all the rage during Covid. Various state governments' preferred experts would recommend all sorts of bizarre restrictions - shutting South Australia down over a pizza box, for instance - but the government could tell their voters they were taking the issue seriously, because they were listening to the experts. I thought after Australians were told not to touch a football if it came into the stands of the Adelaide Oval that Australians were done stomaching the idea that we should listen solely to the experts. But Labor's talking points over the social media ban - especially its backflip on an exemption for YouTube - is a test for my theory. Social media use in teenagers is an area the government really wants to be seen as 'doing something'. It's a hot topic and for good reason. Mental health in teenagers, particularly among girls, has nosedived since smartphones and social media became widespread. Parents feel helpless. They know that social media will hurt their child, but also know depriving them of social media when all of their friends have them harms them as well. The government has jumped on this and come up with their social media ban. They also found their expert and outsourced responsibility to her. Enter the eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant. The level of deferral from the government to this public servant is galling. In Question Time on Wednesday, Minister Anika Wells referenced the commissioner four times in her one answer about the social media ban - including saying she 'was required by the law to seek advice from the eSafety Commissioner on the draft rules, and the eSafety Commissioner's advice was clear'. That's all well and good - but the Australian people did not elect the eSafety commissioner. They elected Anika Wells, and they elected her to do far more than ask Julie Inman Grant what to do then listen politely. The eSafety Commssioner's duty according to the government is to ensure Australians 'have safer, more positive online experiences.' But that is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to forming policy about the online world. Safety must be balanced with freedom, educational possibilities, economic concerns and a whole raft of other factors. We'd all be free of harm from social media if we never went on the internet again - but we'd also lose all of the wonderful benefits it gives us too. It's Covid all over again. Then governments outsourced responsibility to Chief Health Officers whose primary concern was safety and stopping the spread of the virus - because that was their area of expertise. Other concerns like students' education, mental wellbeing, individual freedom and the economy - issues that should have been considered with the same seriousness as the virus itself - were swept aside in the narrow view of stopping the spread. And now other factors are being swept aside in the narrow view the government and the eSafety Commissioner are taking when it comes to social media, and particularly YouTube. The government this week reversed its commitment to exempt YouTube from their social media ban for people under the age of 16. The problem with that is that YouTube does not behave in the same way as Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook or the other social media networking sites. Those latter sites rely on users sharing information with each other, such as photos and updates. Teenagers spend hours cultivating their profiles to make their lives look idyllic, and spend further hours seeing the photos and lifestyles of people they know look even more idyllic - a vicious cycle that harms mental health. YouTube does not act like that. There is not as much person-to-person sharing as there are in the other social media networks. People watch videos and move on to other videos. In fact a survey released by the eSafety Commission itself found that YouTube is one of the safest social media websites for teenagers in terms of the risk of grooming, sexual harassment and bullying. Teenagers are more likely to be targeted over text message than over YouTube. The 'safety' concerns around YouTube are less about bullying and comparative lifestyles and more about what content is popular on YouTube, such as conservative opinions. Julie Inman Grant told the National Press Club this year that she was concerned YouTube's 'opaque algorithms' were 'driving users down rabbit holes they're powerless to fight against'. That's a whole different reason for enforcing safety and completely removed from the original conversation around protecting children online. But it's not unexpected considering the eSafety Commissioner's remit is to ensure online safety. It's up to the government to balance the desire for safety with other effects a ban on YouTube would have - especially education. Oxford Economics this year found that 72 per cent of parents agree that YouTube helps their children learn and 79 per cent of parents agree YouTube provides quality content for their children's learning. In an interview on Sky News this week, YouTube personality Leo Pugilsi said his teachers upload videos of themselves explaining what was discussed in school to help children out with homework. This is what the government is impacting when it listens solely to the eSafety Commissioner. An unforgivable sin from Covid was our governments letting experts tell them the education of children was a secondary concern. By listening solely to the eSafety Commissioner and ignoring the educational benefits of YouTube, Labor is making the same mistake again - all in the name of "doing something". James Bolt is a Sky News Australia contributor.
