Copyright Amendment Bill 2026

Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (13:28): I rise on behalf of my party, the Greens, to indicate that we are supporting the Copyright Amendment Bill 2026, and I note that one of the key benefits of this legislation is that it provides for an orphan works scheme. But in the short time available to me I wish to read onto the record our concerns about the operation of the proposed section 28.

There are competing interests at play in the debate over the proposed section 28: the interests of copyright holders, creatives and others to ensure that they are adequately remunerated for their creativity and their work as well as the interests, particularly in public education, to have clear and ready access to copyright materials for the purposes of teaching and particularly for the purposes of giving access to online education.

There is much ongoing debate about the intent and the purposes of section 28 of the bill. The schools Copyright Advisory Group—what I'll call 'CAG Schools' going forward—made it clear in their comments, which the Greens support, that remote learning reforms are vital to ensure that Australian schools can fully realise contemporary teaching methods— The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT ( Senator Sterle ): Order, Senator Shoebridge.

It being 1.30, we're at the hard marker, and we'll now go to two-minute statements.