Opened the debate
Shoebridge argued that the government had failed to move from rhetoric to legislation regarding a digital duty of care. Shoebridge contended that both the current Labor government and the previous Coalition administration had allowed major technology platforms unrestricted access to Australian user data. Shoebridge advocated for adopting European regulatory frameworks that enforce algorithmic transparency and give users the right to opt out of data collection. Shoebridge cited the scraping of Australian social media content by Meta as evidence of inadequate privacy protections. Shoebridge also criticised the government's foreign policy stance, suggesting it lacked independence in its dealings with the United States.