NATALIE BARR, HOST: Now in just a few hours’ time, Anthony Albanese will deliver a major speech before the UN General Assembly. He’s expected to outline how his government’s world first social media ban is leading the charge in online safety.

DAVID WOIWOD, HOST: But the law faces growing pressure back home with legal challenges beginning to emerge, and now 16 additional companies, including WhatsApp and Reddit, are under consideration for these tough new restrictions. And for more on this, we welcome Anika Wells, Communication Minister, live from New York City. Good morning to you. Minister, what is the Prime Minister hoping to achieve today with his speech?

MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS ANIKA WELLS: Good morning. Well, this is the Prime Minister’s national address and his first one here at the UN. It’ll be an honour to be there on the floor of the General Assembly watching him. And one of the things that he’ll be speaking to are Australia’s world-leading social media laws, like you mentioned. From something that started as a petition of 126,000 parents with a fervent wish that someone would do something about what was happening to their kids online, the Prime Minister delivered those laws last year and now here we are on the global stage at the UN helping other countries do the same.

BARR: So, what’s the response from other countries? Because as you say, this is a first, other countries haven’t been able to do it.

WELLS: I think there is a global recognition of the harms that people are experiencing online and particularly our kids. This morning at our event, we had the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Prime Ministers of Greece, of Malta, the Prime Ministers of Fiji and Tonga, all join Australia to say we need to do things like this and they are carefully watching us, and as we deliver these laws come 10 December, to see how they can follow suit.

WOIWOD: Minister, we’ve already seen some of these challenges to these proposed new laws. We’ve seen Elon Musk’s platform X releasing a statement saying that they have serious concerns about the lawfulness of the policy, which they are now calling punitive. What’s your response to that?

WELLS: These platforms make a lot of money off Australians operating their business on our shores, and these platforms have had every opportunity, they have had years to look after Australians online. They could have done it themselves, they could have done it on their own terms. They chose not to even though they are well aware of the dangers, so we had to step in.

WOIWOD: So how do you plan on countering any of that action?

WELLS: Well, the Australian law has stood since the end of last year. We gave platforms 12 months to prepare. We gave the rules in July, we handed down the regulatory guidance, the eSafety Commissioner and I, last week, and we continue to meet constantly with platforms. I’ve met several here, tech giants, while I’ve been here in New York, so that everybody can land this on 10 December. If anyone decided to actually challenge legally, whilst I’m not a legal psychic and I’m not aware of any actual legal challenges in the works, we’ll address those as they come. This is the law. This is what stands in Australia and the world is following suit.

BARR: Okay, well, that’ll be interesting to see what happens and we’ll watch for those. Just before we go, let’s have a look at the selfie. We’ve just been watching this. It’s gone global, it’s gone viral. Our PM with Donald Trump and a big set of choppers. What do you think about the selfie?

WELLS: Well, it’s good they got to meet at the World Leaders event that they were at together last night. I understand that they spoke for several minutes . We’ve obviously got this forthcoming meeting on 20 October between our Prime Minister and President Trump. But that’s the beauty of high-level week here at the UN. We do so many events a day. You get to learn as well as do bilaterals with people. And I’m sure that they’re both looking forward to meeting up on 20 October.

WOIWOD: All right. Thanks for your time this morning, Minister. Thank you.

BARR: More selfies, maybe. Thank you.