Albanese says Elon Musk has an agenda on social media ban

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has signalled next year’s federal election will be later rather than sooner while accusing Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and confidante to US President-elect Donald Trump, of pursuing his own interests in opposing Australia’s ban on social media for under-16s.

Albanese said he was prepared to talk to Musk about the ban, and he assured Australians they would have “a bit of time” before worrying about going to the polls.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused Elon Musk of having an “agenda” on social media.Credit: Aresna Villaneuva

The social media ban was one of 45 pieces of legislation passed by the parliament last week which has prompted speculation Albanese will seek to go to the polls as early as the end of February or in early March.

Parliament is due to resume for a two-week sitting from February 4 while Treasurer Jim Chalmers is scheduled to deliver his fourth budget, likely to show a substantial deficit, on March 25.

Pressed on ABC’s Insiders program whether he had decided on an election date, Albanese bluntly said “no” while referencing speculation in the past four months that he would go to the polls.

“I’ve said the whole way along that three years is too short. I think it should be four-year fixed terms. That hasn’t been able to be achieved. Twice that’s been tried in referendums and not succeeded, but my starting point is to work from three years and work back from that,” he said on Sunday morning.

While the next election can constitutionally be held as late as August, late May would mark three years since the 2022 poll.

Albanese said his intention remained for parliament to return in February with several pieces of legislation that failed to be passed last week, including electoral reform, still on the government’s agenda.

“I foreshadowed the whole way through … I’ve spoken about 2025 as being the election year. So we’ve got a bit of time,” he said.

The social media ban – which will affect platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Reddit – has attracted global attention, with Australia the first democracy to put in place a ban on under-16s.

Musk, whose X platform will also be affected by the ban, has described it as a “backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians”.

Albanese said he was prepared to talk to anyone about the ban and its implementation, but he stressed that the parliament had clearly supported the move.

“We’ll talk to anyone,” he said. “But with regard to Elon Musk, he has an agenda, he’s entitled to push that as the owner of X, formerly known as Twitter.

“But we are determined to get this done. The parliament has overwhelmingly passed this legislation and it’s the right thing to do.

“I want children to have a childhood. I want them to engage with each other.”

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