News Journalism Payments Bill 2026, News Journalism Payments (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2026, News Media Bargaining (Administration) Bill 2026, News Media Bargaining Charge Bill 2026, Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media Bargaining) (Consequential) Bill 2026
Senator HANSON-YOUNG (South Australia—Manager of Australian Greens Business in the Senate) (10:41): I rise to contribute to this debate today. I understand that this legislation will pass this morning. I think we need to be really clear about the state of media not just in Australia but around the world.
Things have changed rapidly in the last few years. As big tech, social media companies and big AI are flooding the zone and using not just the work of others but the spread of mis- and disinformation as part of their currency, we've got to be really serious about what we do to ensure public interest journalism survives, thrives and is defended. There are some in this place who have little regard for the work of journalists.
There are some in this place who would like to pick and choose which journalists and which media companies show up to their press conferences. Those people are the same people who are trying to tear our democratic institutions down. When you look around the world, Australia is not unique in this.
The rise of far-right politics is a direct threat to democracy. One of the biggest threats to democracy, and how you undermine it, is the undermining of the role, the job and the legitimacy of journalism. In order for democracy to be strong, to be trusted and to have authority to deliver what it should—which is for the people who decide, the citizens, the voters, the community—we need a strong public interest journalism sector.
It is not a coincidence that the same right-wing forces that wish to tear down our democratic institutions are also the same people who want to lock journalists out of their press conferences. It is also not a coincidence that these very same politicians also want to roll out the red carpet for big tech and the billionaires who run AI. They don't want any regulation on big tech.
They want to hand Australian land over to people like Elon Musk and they want to be able to pick and choose which journalists they'll take questions from. The main culprit that wants to tear down journalism and democracy in this country is of course Senator Pauline Hanson and One Nation, and why is that? It's because they don't like people asking the tough questions.
They don't want to be held to account for their lunatic policies that do more to protect the interests of big tech and billionaires than to help people who are struggling right now. When Pauline Hanson stood at the National Press Club and outlined her suite of policies, from crazy to bad, who did she attack? She didn't just attack migrants; although, she had a good swing at them.
She attacked women. She attacked young people. And she attacked journalists because she doesn't like them asking the tough questions.
Fast forward a few weeks later and One Nation is locking journalists and media companies out of press conferences. This is authoritarian stuff happening on our watch from people within this parliament, which is a democratic institution that only gets to exist because of the belief that we will be held to account, not just by the public square but by those that are skilled and trained and whose job it is to hold us to account.
These bills goes some way to giving media and journalists in this country a fair crack at sustainability in a world where big tech wants to hoover everything up, make massive profits and shut out the real humans doing the real work and who ask the real tough questions. But it's not a silver bullet. If we don't defend public interest journalism, if we don't defend our public broadcasters and if we don't defend the freedom of the press to come to press conferences—whoever is hosting them—ask questions and expect that they'll be answered, then we are not doing our job.
I think it is absolutely galling that somebody can be elected, come into this place, earn hundreds of thousands of dollars on the taxpayer's dime and then think they should be able to pick and choose who holds them accountable. It's arrogant, it's dangerous and it's cowardly. There's a reason that Pauline Hanson and One Nation locked journalists out of their press conferences.
It's because they're running scared. The people of Victoria deserve to know what One Nation will do if they're elected. Guess what news the majority of people who live in rural and regional Victoria and the rest of the country rely on for their public interest journalism?
They rely on the ABC, and of course Pauline Hanson wants to gut them. She doesn't just want to shut them out of her press conference but wants to cut them. Senator Pauline Hanson and One Nation are so scared that people will know what they really want to do that they think they can ban journalists whenever they like.
It is a bad, slippery slope. Public interest journalism—the pesky questions from journalists—is a fundamental foundation to our democracy, and it must be defended. These bills are not perfect.
There are elements that I think could have gone in a way that supported more independent and smaller players. But I've been pleased to help push the government to increase access for smaller players and independent players to these funds. The other problem we have in Australia is a very concentrated media landscape.
The big players—News Corp, Nine, Seven West—dominate not just our television screens but the written word, the press and our radio waves. We need to find better and more important ways to support new players and media diversity in this country. I'll be keeping a very, very close eye on how this scheme rolls out.
I'm disappointed that the government has failed to put on the table a mechanism for forcing AI and big tech, who are using AI technology to hoover up the content of journalists and news organisations for their own profits—they're not paying a cent. That is not covered in these bills. AI is not tackled in this piece of legislation, and it should have been.
The government is now on notice because it's not just social media companies that are taking the work of journalists, flogging it off on their own platforms and not paying a cent; AI is doing it every day. We need a mechanism to force the big-tech companies to pay Australian journalists and creators for the work that they are stealing. Big tech has become so humongous.
These big-tech companies, these big AI companies, have become so humongous that it's near impossible for an Australian media company to have a fair go in any negotiation—and that is only going to continue to get worse. The Australian government has to do something about that quick smart. These companies are mostly US companies.
Look at the trust deficit in the United States right now amongst their public—the trust deficit in politics, media and news. It is rock bottom. We cannot afford to allow that to happen here—it already is, arguably, and we have to stop continuing down that US path.
I urge the government: don't sit on your hands waiting for some silver bullet. You're going to have to do the hard work. It's taken years for the government to put this on the table, and it's cost journalists jobs in Australia already.
If you roll over for the big AI companies, it's going to be very, very hard to get things back on track. I know the government is currently trying to work through those issues, but I am fearful that you're not strong enough to stand up to big AI. I am fearful of that.
I don't think you've got the guts, but I want to be proven wrong. I want to see this government work with this parliament to stand up to AI and force them to pay for the work that they are stealing. If we don't have public interest journalism being used, shared and distributed, then we end up with politics and media flooded with lies and rubbish, AI slop, misinformation and disinformation.
Who benefits from that? The very people who sit in this corner, who want to tear democracy down. It will cost us all.
It's not just about the jobs of journalists. It will cost us the strength of democracy. You've got to stand up to AI, and you've got to stand up to the right wing who sit in this very corner, in this chamber, who are doing the bidding for big tech, for the big billionaires and for themselves.
They are doing nothing about helping Australians. I move: At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate: (a) acknowledges that the biggest gap in this legislation is that it neglects to address the artificial intelligence platforms that are rapidly becoming the biggest tech companies in the world; (b) notes that artificial intelligence companies take the work of Australian journalists, news organisations and content creators to feed into their large language models without paying rights-holders for it; and (c) calls on the Government to urgently consult on pathways to ensure artificial intelligence companies are also forced to pay for the journalistic work that they take and use".