Steve Price: Australia Correspondent on high support for social media ban and Anika Wells travel drama

Australian Correspondent Steve Price joined Heather du Plessis-Allan to chat about a recent poll showing 70% of Australian parents are in support of this weeks social media ban.

But, only 35% are confident that the platforms will effectively block children.

And, Sports Minister Anika Wells is in more hot water after charging taxpayers more than $4000 in flights so her husband could join her at three cricket events.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Steve Price Ossie corresponds with us right now, morning, Steve
good I Heather, So a couple of days to go,
and we've got the social media bankkicking in.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, this is for anyone under sixteen. They'll be turned
off on their social media accounts for the actual providers.
That's the theory, but a lot of the excuse me,
a lot of the parents that are a little skeptical.
So there's a polland Cinneymonny Herald this morning saying seventy
percent of voters back the ban, but only thirty five
percent of confident that the platforms will actually effectively manage

(00:32):
to bock their children. Resolve. Political monitor did this pole
for the Herald. Fifty three percent said that they would
pick and choose what their kids could access, and they
would review parental controls. Thirteen percent plan to take no action.
So this is going to be really interesting because I mean,
I think most of us would say social media can
cause great harm. We've had awful examples of that, and

(00:55):
it would be better if children under sixteen. In fact,
I would say children under eight used it less. But
parents themselves realize that this is going to be really hard.
I mean, how do you tell a fifteen year old
that suddenly they're not allowed with the looming summer school
holidays coming to go on Snapchat. I mean, as a parent,

(01:15):
I think it would be really difficult to enforce. And
the government seems confident this is the best thing they've
ever done in the world, But I just think in
practical terms it's going to be very difficult. I mean,
you know, there's even evidence that kids are using photographs
of celebrities to pretend that that's who they are, ah,

(01:36):
so they can keep their accounts. I mean, I guess
the evidence is going to be and how the whole
thing does work eventually, But we'll see.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Yeah, I see facing has started to kick them off,
I meet, you know with Facebook and Instagram started kicking
them off already last week. Have we had howls of
outrage from the kids.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Not yet, And so that means to me that they're
going to get around it somehow.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, you might well be right now. Yeah, this business
with the ex ben su scandal is getting pretty It's
getting pretty full on, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, and interesting this is the minister in charge of
promoting the new laws on social media, Annika Wells. It
can be revealed into Sidney Morning Herald. Now that during
the twenty twenty two to twenty three Test cricket series
against South Africa, the minister charge taxpayers for a family
reunion flight so that her husband could come down to
the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. The flights cost eighteen

(02:28):
hundred and eighty five dollars. She got three free corporate
tickets from Cricket Australia to go to the match, and
in twenty three twenty four, the match against Pakistan Australia
was playing, she got one free ticket and the husband
still flew down to Melbourne. Now she's not technically breaking
the laws. There are reunion rules around this that you

(02:50):
can have three flights a year if you're going somewhere
other than Canberra to be with your partner. But this
is the same minister who took two after New York
to attend a meeting of the UN to spruit the
new social media laws, and the air fares there were
eye wateringly expensive, over ninety thousand dollars for three of

(03:12):
them to go to New York and back. Now many
people suspect she's probably sitting in first class. We may
never know, but these things are never a good look,
particularly when you've got a country where there's a cost
of living crisis. People can't afford to pay their electricity bills,
and you've got ministers flying around the world in business
class and then getting their husband to fly down to
Melbourne to go to the Boxing Day Tests. It's not

(03:33):
a good look for Anika Wills. If she wasn't promoting
the social media changes this Wednesday, I suspect she might
have lost her job now.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
I mean, Steve as you say, these other rules and
there's no indication that she's broken the rules. So had
she done it at a time when the country was
more flush and people were more flushed, to have been fine.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Probably, Although punters don't like politicians getting freebies, whether it's
tickets to the cricket or whether it's airfares, it's just
not something. I mean she says, Look, I've broken no rules,
and no you haven't. Well, maybe we need to change
the rules. I mean, why would taxpayers have to pay
for her husband, who lives in Brisbane to fly to

(04:12):
Melbourne to go to the Boxing Day Test. If he
wants to go to the Boxing Day Test, let him
pay for himself.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. Now, the lads
in the producing team here tell me that you're going
to be a bit dark on the Oscar Pa Yestree situation.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Well, I've almost given up, and I think Oscar had
two The team McLaren wanted Norris to win, and Lando
has become the world champion. I think the delicious moment
was lap one, turn nine Oscar passed Norris. I think
Oscar finished third in qualifying, so he had Norris him
to staping ahead of him, and all he wanted to
do I think to show the world was that he's

(04:46):
a better driver than Lando Norris, and he is led
the world championship for most of the season. We might
go back to mons or I don't want to be
too technical about it or this, but back in Monza,
Piastre was forced to let Norris go past as part
of team rules, and that cost Oscar three points, and
of course those three points went to went to Lando

(05:09):
and he won the world title by two points. So
you can make up your own mind. I mean he's
a better driver. They had two great cars all year.
The Stappen's are superstar. He's won five world titles and
you know if Norris, if Piastri couldn't win either, I
would have liked to have seemed to stab him. But
I just don't like Lando. He's a privilege pratt.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
To be honest, Good on you, Steve appreciated, Steve price
Osi corresponding, weren't we just talking about this? Weren't we
just talking about the fact that he is incredibly privileged
because it comes from a rich family. But it still
takes some skill, doesn't it.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks they'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.