News Media Bargaining (Administration) Bill 2026

Ms SPENDER (Wentworth) (11:45): I rise to speak in support of the amendments moved by the member for Curtin. Public interest journalism has arguably never mattered more. Small and independent publishers continue to create content for specialised communities like the Star Observer, Neos Kosmos and the Jewish Independent, all of which are in my community of Wentworth.

Others serve specific local communities like the Beast, the Local Paddo and Eastern Suburbs Life. For under-25s, 71 per cent now access news through social media, and 60 per cent of Australians aged 18 to 24 have never used newspapers as a source of news, but young people haven't lost interest. Since 2024, interest in news among 18-to-24-year-olds has risen 12 percentage points to 47 per cent.

Government has a responsibility to ensure news businesses receive a fair return of the value they contribute and that the news Australians find on these platforms is worth finding. The previous bargaining code exposed a fatal flaw that platforms could simply remove news from their services and walk away without any obligation to pay for it. These bills fix that, and I commend the government for bringing these bills forward, but they also may inherit the code's other failure—deals overwhelmingly flowing to the largest players, while smaller and independent outlets are left behind.

It is to these outlets that I want to speak to. The member for Curtin has raised a number of amendments that will support access to funding to smaller journalist organisations providing quality journalism, and I think this is absolutely critical, because we know that, even in the previous deal that was struck in this area, there were some small players that were included.

This does not guarantee that they will be included in future deals. Specifically, for instance, having spoken to a number of the smaller players, I know they talked about the challenges they had in dealing with the large players like Google and the concern that, had they not had philanthropic support to organise around doing deals with these large players, they would not have been included in the future.

This is really what these amendments go to. We have to create an environment that allows small news sources and emerging news organisations to be supported. I do not believe, as the bill is currently structured, that this allows this.

The member for Curtin has put some useful and constructive amendments forwards in terms of allowing this. I recognise that the government has listened to stakeholders, including by lifting the offset rate to 200 per cent for deals with smaller publishers and by including freelancers and journalists headcounts. These were changes called for by the Local & Independent News Association, and they matter.

As we consider these amendments, we must listen closely to those voices who are not clearly represented in the media most of us read every day, which are the small and special-interest publishers who serve communities that many of the major players will never reach. There is no guaranteed certainty that these minor players will get the support that they need to continue to innovate and serve communities, and this is why I support these amendments.