By AIDAN KNIGHT

 

GOOGLE and Meta has rejected a plan by the federal government to tax corporations refusing to pay Australian news outlets.

The News Bargaining Incentive (NBI) is a scheme designed to replace the 2021 News Media Bargaining Code, which was created shortly after Meta rejected previous attempts to get platforms to pay – resulting in Facebook blocking any domestic news outlets/content. While the company, owned by founder and developer Mark Zuckerberg, eventually decided to add Australia as a friend again, the relationship hit another rocky patch after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese proposed a 2.25 per cent levy.

This would be put in place to tax any digital provider earning $250 million or more in Australia, if they do not sign a commercial deal with newsrooms. Dubbing it the “carrot” to platforms like Meta, who would be provided offsets of 150-170 per cent if they were to comply.

Similar to last time, Meta has rejected the proposal, calling it a “government-mandated transfer of wealth”, and maintaining its previously iterated belief that newsrooms “receive value” from Meta in it’s current setup, and that is why they continue to post content to social media despite there being no income from it. The Express spoke to Andrew Schreyer, general manager of neighbouring publication, The Warragul & Drouin Gazette. Mr Schreyer was president of the Country Press Association during the time of the Facebook news block in 2020, and led what is still an ongoing push from the association in securing a sustainable future for independent and rural newspapers.

Mr Schreyer said the proposed scheme could deliver between $350 and $400 million a year to the Australian news industry, with funds to be distributed according to journalism headcount rather than total staff numbers.

“The government has been really clear that the money will be based on journalist numbers,” he said.

“They’ll look at how many working journalists each outlet employs – whether that’s 5.5 at one paper or 4.5 at another – add it all up across the country and then divide the pool. That’s a far better way to reward genuine public-interest journalism than trying to measure output.”

Under the draft model, outlets would declare the number of journalists they employ, with payments then allocated on a per-journalist basis. Mr Schreyer said this approach particularly suits lean regional and country publishers, who often have small reporting teams and few non-editorial staff.

Mr Schreyer said the levy model is deliberately designed to avoid a repeat of what happened when Canada tried to force Meta back to the bargaining table, only to see the platform remove news all together.

“The earlier idea under the old News Media Bargaining Code was that if you ‘designated’ these companies, they’d be forced into deals,” he said.

“But Canada showed us exactly what can happen – they just pulled all news off their platforms. Under the NBI, if Meta or anyone else wants to take news down, they still have to pay the levy to operate in Australia. They can ban us, but they can’t dodge contributing.”

He described the federal government’s proposal as stronger and more refined than what Country Press Australia initially pushed for in its original lobbying.

“Credit where it’s due, it’s taken a while, but this is a better model than what we first put forward,” Mr Schreyer said.

“It’s more robust, it’s informed by what happened in Canada, and it’s squarely aimed at keeping journalists in jobs in communities like ours.”

Country Press Australia President, Damien Morgan said the organisation supports the passage of the draft legislation and sees it as an important step toward restoring fairness between Australian news publishers and major global digital platforms.

“This is fundamentally about fairness, but it is also about truth, facts and the future of informed communities,” he said.

“Professional journalism costs money to produce. Large digital platforms derive value from that journalism, but they do not employ the local reporters, editors and photographers who create it. The News Bargaining Incentive is designed to encourage fair commercial agreements so Australian journalism can remain sustainable.”

Mr Morgan said Country Press Australia acknowledged the genuine contribution technology companies have made to modern life including connectivity, commerce, search, social connection and access to information – and recognised that Google has continued to engage constructively with Australian news publishers.

Country Press Australia has urged Parliament to pass legislation that delivers fair, practical and lasting outcomes for eligible Australian news publishers of all sizes.

“This reform is about keeping facts in front of Australians,” Mr Morgan said.

“It is about protecting local journalism, strengthening democracy and ensuring regional communities continue to have a voice.”