Anthony Albanese has warned parliamentarians to keep their phones on over Christmas as Labor pushes ahead with its social media ban.
The Prime Minister is understood to have told a meeting of the Labor caucus on Tuesday that MPs could not be idle over the weeks-long holiday break.
Parliament is set to rise on Thursday, with MPs typically avoiding public commitments over the holiday period.
Instead, Mr Albanese told his colleagues they should be talking about issues over the summer, including road safety, natural disasters, back to school funding, and the social media ban.
He is understood to have also warned colleagues of the Coalition’s slowing down over the summer.
Anthony Albanese has warned parliamentarians to keep their phones on over Christmas. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
With only a few days left of parliament, Labor is hoping to pass its sweeping environmental reforms, despite neither the Coalition nor the Greens signalling they were ready to back the bill.
The under-16s social media ban is also due to come into effect on December 10.
Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp – warned users last week they would start deactivating accounts of people believed to be between 13 and 15 years old from December 4, a week before the ban is due to take effect.
The world-first ban has been widely praised, but the reality of its implementation has caused doubts.
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