Greens seek ‘tech tax’ to cover journalism

The Greens push for a ‘tech tax’ on social media giants to help pay for Australian journalism as senior Labor ministers talk up the need for a ‘balanced approach’ on gambling ads.

The government says its priorities in reducing gambling advertising is tackling the normalisation of wagering in sport, reducing the exposure of children to such ads and tackling the saturation and targeting of ads. Picture: Nicole Garmston

The Greens are pushing for a “tech tax” to be placed on social media giants to help pay for Australian journalism as senior Labor ministers talk up the need for a “balanced approach” in cracking down on gambling advertising, saying it’s an important revenue source for sporting codes and free-to-air TV.

Cabinet minister Bill Shorten said on Monday night he was not convinced a complete prohibition worked and cautioned that commercial media was “under massive attack” by Facebook and needed the revenue, while vowing to take strong action.

Cabinet colleague Murray Watt backed Mr Shorten in on Tuesday. “We do need to recognise it is an important revenue source for free-to-air TV at a time when it’s under immense pressure from social media. It’s also an important revenue source for sporting codes, and that’s why we are taking the time to think this through properly and come up with a workable solution that takes all of those issues into account,” he told ABC TV.

Greens communications spokes­woman Sarah Hanson-Young said Mr Shorten’s comments “were a clanger” and instead of funding journalism “with the human misery of ­gambling addiction”, the tech ­giants should be taxed.

“Labor should get real with a tech tax on the global giants like Meta, Google and TikTok to make them pay for the journalism and the content they monetise,” she said.

“If we want to fund journalism, we need a tech tax, not more problem gambling and predatory ads during the footy.”

A draft government plan would ban gambling ads online, during children’s programming and live sport and an hour each side of a live game, plus cap them to two an hour on TV channels through until 10pm.

Crossbenchers and some Labor and Coalition MPs are pushing for a tougher regime.