Social media, aged care legislation pass parliament

By Federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton

Social media age limit legislated

A number of bills passed through parliament during the final sitting week of the year, including legislation to enforce an age limit of 16 for social media.

I’ve been contacted by lots of people concerned about this legislation, mostly around privacy. I also have similar concerns, but this legislation has been passed after the Coalition negotiated changes which strengthened rules around privacy. Under these changes, people cannot be compelled to provide Digital ID or government-issued identity documents such as drivers licences or passports. The legislation also prohibits platforms from using information collected for age checking purposes for any other purpose, unless explicitly agreed to by the individual.

The new system won’t be perfect – no laws are. Some kids will get around the system, just like people flout speeding or underage drinking laws. But hopefully it will make a real difference for Australian families in protecting children from online harm.

Aged care bill passes

Another significant piece of legislation that passed was the Aged Care Bill. The Coalition worked hard in negotiating with the government to ensure these reforms provide dignity and clarity for older Australians.

We pushed for further changes to the legislation to ensure small, rural, regional and remote aged care homes were able to be supported through this process. We secured an additional $300 million Aged-Care Capital Assistance Programme round, specifically for homes in rural and remote locations. This funding can be used for accommodation for workers, construction, or renovations to the aged care home.

We know that in the regions, many aged care homes struggle to find staff to meet the government staffing mandates. That is why we moved an amendment to allow enrolled nurses, and registered nurses via telehealth, to be utilised within these mandates as well. However, the Labor Government opposed this important amendment.

The government also opposed our amendment to give providers a year to adapt to this significant package of reforms. We know small, regional, rural and remote providers in particular need more time to adjust to these changes and the Coalition will keep fighting for a genuine transition timeline. We’ll also continue to fight for sensible changes that seek to ensure aged care providers in regional areas will not be forced to close their doors because of this government’s inflexible policies.