News Media Bargaining (Administration) Bill 2026

Mr GEE (Calare) (11:59): I wish to support these very worthy amendments from the member for Fowler, who, as this House has heard, has a background in journalism and understands the importance of those local voices. I am from central western New South Wales, and against the odds we still have small, independent media outlets telling our local stories. We need to make sure that this legislation filters down to those smaller, independent organisations, which quite frankly are doing it tough.

It's amazing that they still exist, but against the odds, through passion for journalism and telling our local stories, we have hardworking journalists out there telling the stories of regional Australia in our local communities. They need our support. What we want to make sure is that it's not just the large media organisations that benefit from this legislation because we need as many diverse local voices in country Australia as we can get.

I think that these amendments from the member for Fowler go to that and support that—supporting local independent journalism that actually is local and tells local stories rather than having a larger media group dominating. We need those smaller voices to be heard that support and advocate for the things that we hold dear and the things that we are fighting for.

The reality is that the country is different from the city in so many ways. We've got some really big issues facing regional Australia at the moment. We need as many advocates and country voices out there fighting for us, and that's what these smaller independent media outlets do.

So I commend the member for Fowler for bringing these really important amendments, and I would urge every right-thinking member in this House to get behind these amendments and not only support country journalism but support the smaller, independent media outlets that our country communities still rely so much on.