News Bargaining Initiative: Big Tech must do its part to preserve quality journalism
The plethora of voices barking for attention in the media’s crowded skies have made quality journalism more important than ever and a continued duty the Herald is honoured to shoulder.
The Albanese government’s News Bargaining Incentive to force Big Tech to pay for using the work of our journalists is a reform made even more urgent by the recent rise of artificial intelligence.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday released draft laws proposing a tax worth 2.25 per cent of tech firms’ revenue if they did not strike voluntary agreements with media companies to compensate them for news hosted on social media and search engines.
It could make Meta, TikTok and Google others pay up to $135 million for Australian journalism if they come to the table. Companies that do not sign deals with Australian news organisations will face a 2.25 per cent levy on their Australian revenue to fund journalism, which could amount to more than $200 million for the biggest player, Google.
The so-called magnificent seven tech stocks are the single largest component of the US sharemarket and the companies have been so successful in courting Donald Trump that the US president is cheering on their corporate impunity as they dodge multinational taxes.
The chasm that falls between giant tech Australian operations and the little money they leave behind is glimpsed in last years’ financial statements: Google, Meta and Amazon’s cloud arm collectively sent more than $14 billion from Australian customers offshore and paid a combined $212 million in income tax on local profits.
The draft laws were required after Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, pulled out of a Morrison-era scheme that drew in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for media companies.
Hopefully, some big tech companies will be good corporate citizens and play ball. Some will throw tantrums. Meta churlishly stopped using news in Canada to avoid paying publishers. However, the Australian legislation will include a “must carry” clause, forcing them to have news on their platforms.
The Albanese government’s ground-breaking ban on social media for under-16s and the new powers granted to the competition watchdog to fine tech companies for anticompetitive behaviour incurred Trump’s wrath. The prime minister’s firm stand on the News Bargaining Incentive will certainly get pushback from the administration and its acolytes: as the Herald’s David Swan reports, the US Computer and Communications Industry Association, a lobby for Big Tech, has already labelled it a tax.
In a joint statement, Australia’s major news organisations Nine Entertainment (owner of this masthead), the ABC, News Corp, Network Ten, SBS, Southern Cross Media, Australian Community Media and Guardian Australia said the future of Australian journalism was at stake.
The Australian media, while not perfect, is a mirror of national life that shapes public opinion and defines a country’s identity. It cannot be replicated or outsourced.
It is hardly surprising that, as a news publisher, we would welcome the legislation. But we would also argue it is good for Australia because it helps fund the kind of quality journalism upon which the health of our democracy relies.
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