News Journalism Payments Bill 2026

Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister) (11:21): Right around the world, the organisations that invest in the news are losing revenue to the tech platforms that use their work. Television, radio and newspaper newsrooms, including the National Press Gallery here in Parliament House, have felt the effects through budget cuts, staff reductions and increased workloads.

I want to say to Australia's journalists, news producers, editors, photographers and videographers: we have your back. The sustainability of our news sector must be addressed, and it must be addressed urgently, because a healthy news sector is essential for a flourishing democracy. Without broadly accepted objective facts, reasoned debate becomes impossible.

We talk not to each other but past each other. It makes it harder for us to maintain our great Australian sense of optimism. We literally stop being on the same page.

This legislation will help keep 28 million Australians on that same page. In a world where lies are routinely spread by bad actors, sometimes by images that are literally not real, truthful and accurate news is more important than ever. In its absence, debate is too often replaced by anger, discourse by shouting, democratic discussion by abuse and cooperation by division.

As we all know, this trend, tragically, is global. But we can counter it. With this legislation, Australia is now once again taking leadership on making digital technology work for people—making sure that platforms make an appropriate contribution to the news that they rely on and from which they make enormous profits.

We are showing the way to support the fourth estate, and, once again, we offer our policy as a model to the democratic world. The News Bargaining Incentive is world-leading legislation that will help keep our media sector vibrant and sustainable into the future. It is bipartisan, and it is strong.

The original news media bargaining code was designed to give Australian media companies a fair shot at doing deals with some of the largest companies on Earth, who use their content, often free of charge. This legislation, however, is needed because there is a loophole that has been used. This will keep our news gathering strong and fulfil the promise of the bargaining code.

It will mean that large digital platforms cannot avoid their obligations. If those platforms fail to do deals with Australian news creators, which are what we want to see, they will incur a charge that will make its way to the Australian media sector through a payment scheme. Importantly, there is no revenue to be gained for the government.

This is directly about supporting journalists. Every single dollar collected will be returned to the sector, and any funds will go directly to employing journalists. Following extensive consultation and engagement with the opposition, other members of parliament, the media and tech stakeholders, the original legislation has been strengthened in several important ways—most notably, narrowing the charge base while increasing the rate of the incentive; increasing the number of deals that platforms need to make from six up to eight; adding professional networking sites; and broadening the definition of journalists to include additional essential news roles, including the many freelancers who produce so much new content.

I want to praise the minister for communications for the extraordinary work that she's done to consult and bring this legislation before the parliament. This means that more media companies in Australia will be supported, particularly smaller ones who will negotiate with the big tech companies en bloc, including our ethnic media organisations as well as some of the regional media organisations.

It is important that we back Australia's vibrant small publishers and online news sites. Notably, five per cent of any incentive funds will be directed to AAP as a recognition of the important role that it plays in supporting public interest journalism and news organisations across Australia. This legislation once again places Australia as the world leader when it comes to making technological change work for people.

As with our social media minimum age, our gig worker reforms and our forthcoming standards for AI, we are showing that Australians will always stand up for the national interest. I commend the bill to the House.