DANIEL MULINO: Strong democracy needs strong journalism as big tech faces pressure

Australian journalism is important for our democracy. Having strong public interest journalism means a well-informed community and an informed community means a stronger democracy.

Many Australians now find their news online. It’s been a dramatic shift in the way we consume news from unfolding a newspaper at the kitchen table over breakfast to unlocking a phone and reading it on the train or over lunch. You can now get the news in the way and at a time that suits you.

But the move to digital has not come without a cost. Big social media sites and search engines have been able to use content produced by journalists in Australia without paying for it. It comes at the same time as advertising, once the “rivers of gold” for newspapers, is now dominated by big tech companies.

The balance of power has shifted and it’s putting jobs and access to information at risk for all media organisations in Australia, from the national ones to the regional and local news. That means fewer options, and potentially no longer any options, for the community when it comes to finding out what is happening where they live whether it be Perth, Port Hedland or Pemberton.

The News Media Bargaining Code was the first step on the path of reducing that power imbalance, however it needs a stronger mechanism to ensure the big tech companies pay their fair share.

Google, to its credit, still has deals it has struck with Australian news companies. We want them to keep doing those deals and want other big players like Meta and TikTok to do the same.

The mechanism to do that is the News Bargaining Incentive. We have released a consultation paper for all stakeholders, including consumers of news, to have a say on the details of the incentive.

It is designed to encourage the big digital platforms to strike deals. Any charge under the incentive will be determined for each of the digital platforms then any deal they strike will reduce that amount. They can extinguish the incentive altogether through the value of the deals they do.

Perhaps unusually for a government, we don’t want to raise any revenue and if the digital platforms do end up paying the incentive, the funds will be distributed to news organisations.

It would be good if the value of the deals which have already been struck with news organisations is replicated.

We have undertaken a wide range of consultations with stakeholders in order to develop this consultation paper. We look forward to hearing the views of a wide range of organisations and people over the weeks until the consultation closes on December 19.

The Albanese Government wants a vibrant and strong public interest journalism sector in Australia. We want people to be able to get news about their town, or region, or city from local journalists. The News Bargaining Incentive is an important mechanism to ensure that continues.

Daniel Mulino is the Assistant Treasurer