The social media ban for under 16s was one of 32 bills to pass the Senate on its last sitting day. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
It’s official: children under the age of 16 will be banned from using social media following a long day of high drama in the Senate during its last sitting for 2024.
The ban will come into effect from the end of next year.
It was late on Thursday (28 November), and some Coalition senators either abstained or joined with most of the crossbench in voting against it, but the Opposition gave the government enough numbers to pass the controversial bill.
Three even more highly controversial migration bills also passed with Coalition support.
Senators sat until after 11 pm on Thursday to pass 32 bills, with only a handful of legislation being deferred until next year.
The new migration laws give the Immigration Minister extraordinary powers to deport refugees and apply criminal penalties to those who don’t cooperate.
They also allow the federal government to pay third countries to receive asylum seekers and overturn assessments on refugee status.
The Greens and most of the crossbench voted against that trio of bills, but the government had struck a deal with the Coalition earlier in the week to pass them.
The Senate turned somewhat chaotic on Thursday, as Labor tried to rush through almost 40 bills without any substantial debate.
The Coalition and a number of crossbench senators initially blocked the Federal Government’s move to guillotine debate so it could clear 37 pieces of legislation as a matter of urgency.
However, the Senate subsequently agreed to a second attempt by Foreign Minister Penny Wong to ram through a reduced list of 27 bills.
ACT independent senator David Pocock voted with the Greens and the government after a deal was reached to exclude the social media ban for under 16s bill and three migration bills from the guillotine – meaning they would not be rushed through with the other legislation.
The Build to Rent bill was included in the rushed-through legislation.
The Opposition’s leader in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, demanded to know exactly what concessions the government had made to get those crossbench votes.
“Obviously, you’ve sliced and diced what you tried to put through this morning to go and get something with the Greens,” he said to Senator Wong across the chamber.
He wanted to know why the social media and migration bills were no longer on the guillotine list.
“Is this because the Greens’ tail is wagging the government dog?” Senator Birmingham asked.
The Greens subsequently said they had secured $500 million for social housing upgrades, no coal, oil and gas funding in Future Made In Australia, and an end to the commercial financing of fossil fuel projects overseas.
“The government has also agreed to support Greens amendments to retain the government’s power to override the Reserve Bank where there is disagreement,” the Greens statement said.
“The ability of the Reserve Bank to direct the lending activities of banks will also be retained.”
Greens leader Adam Bandt posted on social media that “pressure works”.
“Everything’s impossible until it’s not,” he tweeted.
“These are good outcomes that will make a real difference to people and the climate.”
Senator Wong successfully moved yet another motion to actually include the migration bills and social media ban on the list of legislation to be considered later in the day.
In a clever twist, the government was separately negotiating on two fronts – one to rush through a long list of bills and another to make sure (with the Coalition’s help) the more controversial social media and migrations bills were also dealt with by the end of the day.
In the House of Representatives, Anthony Albanese – keen to clear as much legislation as possible while he has one eye on calling an early election – could not hide his delight.
“The Senate is expected to pass more than 30 pieces of legislation just today,” the Prime Minister said.
On Friday morning, Mr Albanese praised the successful passage of the social media ban legislation, telling parents “we have your back” and they could now have a “different discussion” with their children about the use of social media.
Despite Thursday being the last parliamentary sitting day for the year, the Lower House was called back to sit for a couple of hours on Friday morning to give the final tick to the last of the bills that passed in the Senate late on Thursday.
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