Communications Legislation Amendment (Australian Content Requirement for Subscription Video On Demand (Streaming) Services) Bill 2025

Mr BURKE (Watson—Minister for the Arts, Minister for Home Affairs, Minister for Cyber Security, Minister for Immigration and Citizenship and Leader of the House) (13:19): I thank the shadow minister for both his contribution earlier and his contribution just now with respect to the amendment he's moved. When we started the consultation, prominence was one of the issues we put on the table to work through.

The pushback from those who didn't want it was some of the strongest pushback we had, on the basis that there was an argument that we were seeking to interfere with their IP. Also, the trade complications on dealing with this were viewed as being pretty serious. But, secondly, an argument put by the streamers—which was not unreasonable—was that if they've spent a whole lot of money on a production then they are going to want to make sure eyes are on it.

The government, having considered those arguments, took the view that the most important thing was to make sure the investment in the content took place, because the business demands would cause these streamers to want to make sure that what they had invested in was being viewed. As I said, the issues about prominence are around the value of the regulation versus the outcome when weighed against some of the pushback and trade issues we're dealing with.

On balance, we made a decision that we were better off securing a guarantee of the investment than going down this additional path. But I completely respect the reasons the amendment is being moved. The SPEAKER: The question before the House is that the amendment moved by the member for Berowra be agreed to.