Mandatory news media bargaining code laws on fast track

The federal government’s mandatory news media bargaining code could become law as early as Tuesday.

Independent senator Rex Patrick will vote in favour of the code — irrespective of whether his requested amendments to the legislation are accepted. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

The federal government’s mandatory news media bargaining code could become law as early as Tuesday, when the Senate will likely vote on whether tech giants should pay news publishers when they use their content on digital platforms.

With Labor having previously offered in-principle support for the code, the bill — which seeks to address the market power imbalance between news publishers and the digital platforms, namely Google and Facebook — is expected to pass the Senate quickly, although the Greens will argue for some minor amendments.

On Friday, a Senate report into the media code will be ­tabled, following a two-day review of the legislation by a cross-party committee last month.

The report is expected to recommend the bill be presented to the Senate in its current form, which will displease the tech ­giants, who told the committee the media code would make it “untenable” for them to continue to operate in Australia.

During that hearing, at which representatives of media companies (including News Corp Australia, publisher of The Australian) and tech giants appeared, Google Australia’s managing director Mel Silva said her company would remove its search engine facility from the Australian market if the code became law.

Facebook has previously pledged to restrict Australian users from sharing news content if the legislation is passed.

Labor would not comment on the Senate report this week, with a spokesman saying it would respond after the report was tabled.

Three weeks ago, however, opposition communications spokes­woman Michelle Rowland said the Morrison government’s proposed code was based on a “sound premise” that sought to ensure Australia had a strong and viable news media sector.

Independent senator Rex Patrick will vote in favour of the code — irrespective of whether his requested amendments to the legislation are accepted.

Senator Patrick, who sat on the Senate committee hearing into the legislation, said although he thought there should be tougher requirements surrounding the transparency of the algorithms used by the tech companies, he would support the bill as it currently stood.

“I’m being asked to choose between public interest journalism in Australia and the profits of a foreign-owned organisation,” he told The Australian. “For me, there is no choice — I must back public interest journalism.”

The Greens are broadly supportive of the introduction of a news media bargaining code, but the minor party is demanding that news organisations spend all of the revenue derived from the proposed law on resourcing public interest journalism, and that an annual review be conducted into the code to assess the impact of the proposed law on small publications.

Liberal senator Andrew Bragg, who was also a member of the Senate committee, said the development of a mandatory news media bargaining code had been a “long time coming”.

“We have pushed the matter into the public domain … these (big tech) organisations have ­admitted that they do see value in journalism, and are willing to pay for it in some way.

“We have come a long way,” Senator Bragg said.