SOCIAL MEDIA SUMMIT
The NSW and South Australian governments are co-hosting a two-day summit on social media in Sydney from today. The event comes amid a backdrop of growing opposition to younger teenagers being banned from social media, Guardian Australia reports. More than 120 experts and academics, as well as mental health and legal groups, have written to the prime minister in opposition to his recently announced plan to ban children from using social media.
The AAP reports this morning advocates are saying the Sydney summit must look at the mental health impacts of children being banned from the platforms. Youth mental health organisation ReachOut has warned that removing young people from social media would block access to what it says has become key support for the younger generation. ReachOut chief executive Gary Groves told AAP: “New research from ReachOut shows young people are using social media to access free mental health information available around the clock … it’s vital to discuss what other mental health supports will be provided if social media bans are introduced.”
Guardian Australia meanwhile highlights experts saying the potential ban on under-16s using social media would not be enough to curb the harm being done to young people on the platforms. Instead, some are calling for stronger legislation governing social media sites, forcing the removal of harmful content and more transparency around algorithms.
Eating disorder researcher and director of the InsideOut Institute Professor Sarah Maguire is quoted as saying: “How can we even talk about keeping young people safe if we have no way of determining what they’re accessing, at what rate, in what numbers. A ban alone is not going to do it. It’s not going to make the platform safe.”
The Butterfly Foundation’s Melissa Wilton said: “A blanket ban takes the responsibility away from the social media platforms and puts it back into the hands of the consumer and the users, and we know that kids will get around it anyway. It just seems to be a very knee-jerk reaction to a much bigger, more complex social problem.”
The AAP notes the two-day summit is set to focus on details of the social media ban rather than debating whether or not it should be introduced. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and state leaders, including NSW Premier Chris Minns and SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, have backed an age limit for social media, but the cut-off age has yet to be declared, the newswire adds.
Data from a WayAhead survey released to coincide with World Mental Health Day today shows cost of living pressures are preventing many Australians from seeking support, AAP also highlights this morning.
One in three of those suffering are not pursuing treatment, the survey said, while almost half of all respondents identified the cost of living crisis as the biggest barrier to accessing professional mental health support
CHANGE NEGATIVE GEARING?
The Sydney Morning Herald has led overnight on its Resolve Political Monitor analysis which the paper says shows voters are open to some of the options being discussed regarding reforming negative gearing. The survey shows 46% of voters “favour reforms to limit the value or number of claims people can make for their investment properties”.
Only 15% of voters polled want negative gearing to be scrapped altogether, with 17% wanting it left alone.
The survey also found that 52% are in favour of the Coalition’s key housing policy — allowing first-home buyers to draw on their superannuation, previously suggested as up to a maximum of $50,000, for a deposit on a property. The government’s Help to Buy policy, which would potentially give 40,000 first-home buyers access to cheaper deposits through a shared equity scheme with the federal government, received support from 39% of voters.
Meanwhile, WA Senator Fatima Payman’s launch of her new party, “Australia’s Voice”, generated plenty of headlines overnight, with the party’s name also attracting scrutiny.
The Australian leads with “Indigenous leaders slam ‘disrespectful’ Fatima Payman’s choice of party name, Australia’s Voice”, while the ABC reports several First Nations leaders expressed their frustration with the use of the word “voice” in the party’s name, claiming permission was not sought. SBS reports Payman told reporters she had consulted broadly with First Nations people about the name but declined to tell the ABC who she consulted with when asked later in the day.
“The word voice isn’t trademarked. It’s out there, people are loving it, I’m getting so much support already,” the senator told the broadcaster.
Guardian Australia, which also reported the concern over the party’s name, “especially so close to the 14 October anniversary of the failed vote”, highlights the former Labor senator admitting her party’s policies would be announced in due course but said they would involve “progressive reform” in areas such as cost of living, tax, education and housing.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
A Dutch museum claims it had to rescue a piece of art from a bin after it was mistaken for rubbish.
The piece, All The Good Times We Spent Together, by French artist Alexandre Lavet involves two dented beer cans and was placed inside a lift “as if left behind by construction workers”, the BBC reports.
The LAM museum in Lisse said on its website the cans were thrown away by an unknowing lift technician. After it was noticed that the piece was missing, a thorough search of the museum was conducted and curator Elisah van den Bergh eventually discovered the artwork, intact, in a bin bag.
“He [the technician] was just doing his job in good faith”, the museum’s director Sietske van Zanten said. “In a way, it’s a testament to the effectiveness of Alexandre Lavet’s art.”
The museum describes the artwork as what “initially appears to be nothing more than two empty beer cans. However, a closer look reveals that these dented cans were meticulously hand-painted with acrylics, with each detail painstakingly replicated”.
The museum said it enjoyed surprising its visitors with where it places the piece. For now, it is being displayed on a plinth at the museum entrance.
Say What?
I love all the proteins so I don’t want to pick favourites.
David Baker
The American scientist on Wednesday was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for computational protein design”, sharing the award jointly with Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper who were recognised for their “protein structure prediction”. The New York Times said their discoveries showed “the potential of advanced technology, including artificial intelligence, to predict the shape of proteins, life’s chemical tools, and to invent new ones”.
CRIKEY RECAP
Every battlefield victory for Israel appears to be a fresh loss. A few more successes and defeat will be total — or it will need to fast forward to a version of a Greater Israel, and even more of a garrison/missile state than it is now, moving permanently into parts of Lebanon and Syria, and approaching mass transfer of West Bank Palestinians into other territories or camps within the West Bank.
The killing of Palestinians, and Gaza, is genocidal now. But this is all being done under an “Iron Dome” that is neither a dome nor of any solidity — it is an electronic military system, as fallible as any, and Israel is sheltering under, in the last instance, a persuasive metaphor.
Magical thinking has infected strategic thinking. The situation is heading towards nuclear exchange, cheered on by a Western establishment that has lost both morality and mind. And it all began with a lethal raid on motorbikes.
At the Opera House event, which Crikey attended, Ramos-Horta said he wished to correct what he described as “the claim by some Australian media that [Timor-Leste] has debt with China”.
“This is my clarification: we don’t. We don’t view China as enemies, we don’t view China as a threat to Australia, a threat to the region, a threat to the world,” the Nobel Peace Prize laureate said.
Ramos-Horta praised Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for “resetting relations and engaging in dialogue with China”, and said he had extended the same congratulations to French President Emmanuel Macron in January.
Last year, research claimed real estate agents were Australia’s least trusted professionals, while the media sector was seen as the least ethical. Fitting, then, that one sector appears to be largely propping up the other.
News Corp’s REA Group was credited with the company’s strong 2024 fourth quarter results, while Nine’s Domain this week overtook its parent company in terms of market capitalisation. In our latest Paint by Numbers, Crikey breaks down the data that shows just how influential the real estate sector is on Australia’s media industry.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
‘It was a dream until it was a nightmare’: Richard Marles’ chief of staff alleges she was barred from her office (Guardian Australia)
Hurricane Milton expected to make landfall in Florida with dangerous storm surge (The Washington Post)
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu speak as Israel plans Iran retaliation (The Financial Times) ($)
Zelenskiy sees ‘opportunity’ to end war in Ukraine by 2025 (Reuters)
Fugitive father seen with children in NZ wilderness for first time in years (BBC)
You cannot be serious? Wimbledon abolishes line judges after 147 years (The Guardian)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Labor’s NBN bill shows a government reaching for an escape from the Middle East debate — Jacob Greber (ABC): Into this maelstrom came the news on Wednesday that Labor will introduce legislation to ensure the NBN Co remains in government ownership. Answering a question, as one commentator put it, that nobody asked.
Retaining the NBN is not a new position for the Albanese government. Communications Minister Michelle Rowland announced more than two years ago, about eight weeks after the May 2022 election, that the company would not be privatised on her watch.
There has been no build-up to this announcement. No stories or debates in the money markets about why this could be on the table. It has emerged, it seems, from a void.
What has changed is Labor’s need to reclaim control of the political agenda. Over the last few weeks the government has been quietly briefing out a series of media “drops” aimed at capturing the public’s attention on the government’s preferred narrative: cost of living.
The new strategy follows months of deteriorating polls for Labor, which most political pundits say is headed for minority government after the next election.
Albanese’s gaffe points to a man under pressure — The Herald’s View (The Sydney Morning Herald): Clearly Albanese’s words were those of a man under pressure.
When he won the 2022 election, he told his colleagues at the first caucus meeting not to squander the opportunity voters had handed Labor, and they should be a two-term government. “It starts with giving people respect,” he once said. Fast-forward more than two years and there have been some achievements, but his government is increasingly being defined by timidity.
In recent weeks, Albanese has been struggling to shepherd his legislation through Parliament. He is mired in dealing with a foreign and distant war in the Middle East while every other day seems to bring challenging economic news. Further, he may be putting on a brave face telling the troops election victory is near, but his snappy and testy interchanges of late belie a slight panic behind the facade.
