Facebook owner Meta would be liable to pay the Australian Taxation Office more than $112 million a year if it fails to strike commercial deals with local publishers under new laws aimed at forcing recalcitrant social media platforms to pay for news.

But the tax, which Labor describes as a charge, could be entirely offset if the Silicon Valley tech giant, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, agrees to pay local news publishers $75 million a year, creating a significant financial incentive to strike deals.