Australia’s News Bargaining Incentive will pressure major digital platforms to pay for news.
Independent publishers of multicultural media warn the legislation does not guarantee them a seat at the negotiating table.
By Emerge News
Australia has passed new legislation requiring major digital platforms to either enter commercial agreements with Australian news publishers or pay a charge based on their local advertising revenue.
The News Bargaining Incentive passed Parliament on Thursday, 20 August.
Debate focused on whether the scheme would adequately support smaller, regional, and multicultural media, including news organizations.
Under the legislation, platforms including Google, Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn can reduce their liability by completing agreements with at least eight news businesses before the end of their financial reporting period.
Spending through agreements with small and medium-sized publishers will receive a 200 per cent offset against a platform’s liability, compared with 150 per cent for agreements with large publishers. However, the legislation does not require any of the eight agreements to include a multicultural, community-language or small independent publisher.
Independent Multicultural Media Australia has welcomed the financial incentive for platforms to deal with smaller publishers but says the final legislation does not provide sufficient protection for its sector.
“For the first time, large technology platforms will face a real cost if they do not pay Australian news publishers,” IMMA chair Christopher Gogos told members following the passage of the legislation.
“Deals with smaller publishers are worth more to a platform than deals with large ones, because a higher rate applies. That is a genuine improvement.”
However, Mr Gogos said platforms could comply with the legislation without reaching an agreement with any independent multicultural publisher.
“A platform only has to do eight deals,” he said.
“Nothing in the law says any of those deals must be with a multicultural, community-language or small publisher.”
IMMA sought stronger protections
IMMA said it had lobbied Labor, Liberal and independent parliamentarians in both houses for changes intended to ensure multicultural publishers were included.
The organization sought a requirement that at least one of the eight platform agreements be reserved for publishers serving culturally diverse audiences.
It also called for collective bargaining to be recognized in the legislation and for registration with the Australian Communications and Media Authority to be used as the eligibility standard.
Those amendments were not adopted.
Mr Gogos said the absence of a guaranteed agreement meant payments could still be concentrated among a small number of established media companies.
“The money is likely to be taken up by a small number of large media companies, and a public broadcaster can occupy the multicultural place,” he said.
“Nothing compels big tech to come to us.”
The concern reflects the structure of Australia’s multicultural media sector, which includes independent outlets serving specific communities, languages and geographic areas.
These publishers frequently report on settlement, migration, employment, health, education, racism and access to government services—issues that may receive limited sustained coverage in larger newsrooms.
Government says the scheme will support Australian journalism
The Australian Government says the incentive addresses a weakness in the former News Media Bargaining Code that allowed platforms to avoid payment obligations by withdrawing news from their services.
Communications Minister Anika Wells said the new legislation placed Australian journalism on a more sustainable footing.
“With the NBI in place, platforms will benefit from doing deals with at least eight news businesses by paying a lower rate than if they simply paid the Incentive,” the government said in its announcement.
If a platform elects to pay the charge instead of completing commercial agreements, the revenue will be returned to the Australian media sector through the News Journalism Payments scheme.
According to Reuters, the charge can apply to major platforms with Australian advertising revenue exceeding $250 million.
The government described the passage of the legislation as an important development for Australian journalism and said the scheme would encourage platforms to complete agreements with news businesses.
Registration becomes critical
IMMA is now urging eligible multicultural publishers to apply for registration with ACMA.
The register identifies news businesses that meet requirements relating to Australian audiences, core news production, professional editorial standards and revenue.
Applicants must generally demonstrate annual revenue exceeding $150,000 in their most recent financial year or in at least three of the previous five financial years.
Mr Gogos described registration as the most important immediate step for publishers seeking to participate in potential platform agreements.
“Platforms will deal with registered publishers because registration removes their legal risk,” he said.
“If you are not registered, you are very unlikely to be approached at all.”
However, the revenue threshold may remain difficult for emerging and community-based publications to meet—even where those publishers provide important public-interest journalism to audiences underserved by mainstream outlets.
Publishers consider collective bargaining
IMMA is also examining a collective bargaining structure through which its members could negotiate with digital platforms as a group.
The organization says individual multicultural publishers may be too small to attract platform interest independently, while a collective arrangement could provide access to a larger combined audience through a single negotiation.
Any proposed structure may require approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
“Acting alone, most of our members are too small for a platform to bother with,” Mr Gogos said.
“Acting together, we are a serious proposition—one negotiation instead of many.”
IMMA said it would continue advocating for direct investment in multicultural journalism and a fairer share of government advertising expenditure.
“We are disappointed, but we are not finished,” Mr Gogos said.
The passage of the legislation creates a new source of potential support for Australian journalism. Whether it produces a genuinely diverse distribution of funding will now depend on which publishers the platforms choose, how the statutory payment scheme operates and whether smaller outlets can negotiate collectively within the multicultural media landscape.
For independent multicultural publishers, the central question remains unresolved: will they be recognized only for the communities they reach—or included in the revenue arrangements supporting the future of Australian news?
