US tech giant Meta has condemned Labor’s plan to tax large digital platforms that fail to pay for using Australian journalism as “government-mandated transfer of wealth”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the existing incentive structure, big digital search companies like Google would have paid a fee of 2.25 per cent of their revenue if they did not pay at least four local news companies under commercial agreements.<\/p>\n
But they could avoid paying the fee if they entered into tax-deductible agreements worth about 1.5 per cent of their revenue.<\/p>\n
The government has now changed the fee to 2.5 per cent of advertising revenue if companies do not come to agreements with at least six local news services.<\/p>\n
AI companies will continue to be excluded from the scheme.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino said big tech companies should provide compensation to the organisations that provide them content through news.<\/p>\n
“That will mean that we have a news production ecosystem that is more sustainable going forward,” he said.<\/p>\n
“This reflects the fact that what we are really trying to target here is the part of the business that uses the news.”<\/p>\n
Will big tech pay up?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Past attempts by the government to require big tech companies to pay for news have prompted threats to pull platforms from Australian users altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, previously refused to renew deals with news organisations initially made under the News Media Bargaining Code, first introduced in 2021.<\/p>\n
Meta instead effectively sidestepped the code by removing and de-prioritising news rather than being forced to pay for the content.<\/p>\n
To address this loophole, the incentive scheme applies to major platforms regardless of whether they hosted news.<\/p>\n
Mr Mulino said the scheme was designed to ensure that companies would end up paying more if they refused to strike deals, regardless of whether they hosted news on their platforms.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also said he was “confident” companies would not choose to walk away altogether.<\/p>\n
“Australia is one of the largest economies in the world, it’s very profitable for them, and we are hearing no indications that would be their reaction,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The amendments also mean the definition of journalists will be extended, broadening to include essential production roles and freelancers.<\/p>\n
Start-ups have also gotten a nod, with 5 per cent of any fund raised through the News Bargaining Incentive to be funnelled into a grants program for small publishers and new starters.<\/p>\n
The government has also increased the offset for deals with small publishers from 170 per cent to 200 per cent.<\/p>\n
![\"Wells](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/aa5c0969d90287d1a450dec93f39b298.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Anika Wells says the amendments will help regional news publishers remain sustainable. (ABC News: Joel Wilson)<\/p>\n
Communications Minister Anika Wells said journalism was the “lifeblood” of a robust democracy.<\/p>\n
She said the doubling of the distribution of scheme loading was critical to supporting regional publishers.<\/p>\n
“This acknowledges both the challenges smaller outlets face, but also the incredible contribution they make to the communities they serve,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Big tech companies that fail to strike commercial deals with Australian media organisations will face a 2.5 per…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8611,22,21,2601,1366,5518,154,76368,76369,149,76367],"class_list":["post-63737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-anika-wells","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-facebook","tag-federal-government","tag-instagram","tag-meta","tag-news-bargaining-incentive","tag-news-media-bargaining-code","tag-politics","tag-tech-companies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}