Transcript - Weekend Today with Alison Piotrowski and Felix Van Hofe

ALISON PIOTROWSKI, CO-HOST: Alright. Teachers and principals are being recruited to enforce the government's social media ban. 

FELIX VAN HOFE, CO-HOST: Education Minister Jason Clare personally penning a letter to every school principal in the country to throw their support behind the landmark rollout. And for more, Education Minister Jason Clare joins us now live in Sydney. First off, welcome Minister. And secondly, teachers, they're on the frontline of this ban. Their support's very, very crucial. 

JASON CLARE, MINISTER FOR EDUCATION: Oh, absolutely, and this starts in just over two week’s time. It's a big deal. We're the first country in the world to ever do this. Parents have been asking us to do it. You know, they're really on the frontline. 

They see that at home every day, teenagers sitting in their bedrooms, endlessly doomscrolling and they see the real mental health impact on our teenagers. That's why we're doing this. 

But we want to make sure that we get as much information out to schools as possible and that's why this week I'm writing to every school across the country with all the information they need about the delay in young people accessing social media till the age of 16 and hopefully give them all the tips and help that they need to get that information out to young people as well. 

PIOTROWSKI: It feels like a mammoth undertaking for the schools, Minister. It's obviously a mammoth undertaking for parents seeing this through. But I want to know, how are you keeping the social media companies accountable in this process? 

CLARE: Yeah, Ali, you're right. And the acid is on them, not parents, not schools. Ultimately the acid has to be on these social media companies. The Snapchats and TikToks of this world. They're the ones that have to verify that young people are 16 in order to access their accounts. They're the ones that have to contact people and prove that they are 16 to access the accounts, not parents. 

We don't want to put pressure on parents. They're under enough pressure as it is. What we want to do is get young people out of that cesspit of social media. It's not going to be perfect. To be up front about this, it's not going to be perfect, but it is going to make a difference. 

We've got laws in Australia that say you can't drink alcohol until you're 18. There are young people who drink alcohol before they're 18, believe it or not. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't have a law. And I think the same is true here. We've got enough evidence now that it's in the interest of our kids to delay access to social media till they're 16, and that's what these changes are all about. 

VAN HOFE: I think they're definitely good changes, Minister, as well. But moving on, thousands of Aussies will today have their student loans slashed. Just how much debt is going to be wiped? 

CLARE: Yeah, well, all up, this will be $16 billion of debt wiped off the backs of young Australians. It's the biggest cut in student debt ever, and it starts happening from today. Today, a hundred thousand young Australians will get the best text message ever telling them that their debt's been cut by 20%. So, on average, that means about five and a half grand of debt wiped off their back. 

PIOTROWSKI: Wow. 

CLARE: That's a lot of help for a lot of young people that are just out of TAFE, just out of university. Maybe they're just out of home. They're certainly just getting started in life, and another one and a half million Australians will get their debt cut by 20% this week, and then another one and a half million will get their debt cut the week after that. And they don't need to do anything. All they've got to do is wait for that text message or that email from the tax office telling them that their debt has been cut by 20%. 

PIOTROWSKI: Oh, that was going to be my next question. So, many students watching, getting very excited, going, how do I get on board? So they don't have to do a single thing. 

CLARE: Don't have to do a thing. Just wait for that ding. Wait for that text message, that email send and then you'll know that it's happened. 

VAN HOFE: You could be a rapper, Minister. You don't have to do a thing. You just gotta wait for that ding. You've just found your new slogan for the whole thing. 

PIOTROWSKI: Hey, hey, look, Minister, before- 

CLARE: I just made that up on the spot, I promise. 

PIOTROWSKI: But before we go, and while we do have you this morning, I did want to bring up another matter. A Brisbane private school is shrouded in scandal after a dossier was leaked where teachers described kids as rude and also criticised parents. We're hearing now that students have had their laptops taken off them. Year 11 exams pushed back. This all sounds like a fiasco. 

CLARE: I think that's right. I think the school's failed here. They've failed the students, and they've failed the parents of the kids who go to that school. Schools have got to collect information, but they've got to do it in a secure way, and they've also got to do it in a professional way. And I don't think either of those things has happened here. 

PIOTROWSKI: While we've got you, Minister, because we do have a little bit more time with you, I did want to ask, you know, we are only two weeks away from this social media ban coming into effect. And you know, as a parent myself, I'm just curious as to what you think day one looks like when this ban kicks in. Do we wake up, and kids just can't get into their accounts? 

CLARE: Well, there'll be a bit of that, but I think that this will change over the coming weeks and the coming months. Obviously, this is going to happen over school holidays as well, and this will be dynamic.

This applies at the moment to social media platforms like Snapchat, and TikTok, and Instagram. But as young people move from one platform to another you can expect that this will be dynamic, that this delay will apply to other platforms as well. Ultimately, we're going to be driven by the evidence. 

You know, what are the different social platforms that young people are on? What's the negative impact that it's having on them? So, you can expect that this is not all going to just change on day one, that over the coming weeks and the coming months, we're going to see the real impact of this, hopefully to the benefit of our kids. 

We've got a live experiment, Ali, at the moment in our schools. For the last two years or so, we've banned phones in our schools, and it's really worked. The impact has been amazing. Kids are more focused in the classroom on their teacher rather than on their phone. And in the playgrounds, they're noisier. Kids are talking to each other again rather than looking down and doomscrolling during lunch. Kids are actually saying to schools that they want to open up music clubs and sporting clubs again because they're bored at lunchtime. 

So, we know it works, but if you drive past a bus stop after school at the moment, you'll see kids back on their phones, back in that cesspit of social media. We want to do something about that, and that's what this change is all about. 

PIOTROWSKI: Yep. Minister, appreciate your time this morning. As a parent, I think it's a great thing. I know people are divided about it, but I'm actually proud that Australia is leading the world on this.