Renee Coffey (Griffith, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

At their core, the News Journalism Payments Bill 2026 and related bills ask a simple question: who pays for the work of journalism? Australian reporters find the stories, editors test every claim and photographers and videographers capture the evidence. Producers turn hours of interviews into clear accounts that people can trust. Large digital platforms gain users, attention and advertising income from that work. These bills ask those platforms to make a fair commercial contribution.

Good journalism costs money to produce, and it takes trained people, time, legal care and a newsroom willing to pursue facts. A social media post can travel around the country in seconds, but the reporting behind it can take days, weeks or months. Our democracy relies on reporting that helps people judge governments, test claims and understand decisions made in their name. It strengthens unity in our community and holds powerful institutions to account. Public interest journalism is a public good, and Australians deserve access to diverse, high-quality, independent and locally produced news. That work needs a sound financial base. These bills support its long-term future.

I want to take a moment to recognise someone I feel very lucky to call a friend: Nance Haxton, the Wandering Journo. Nance has spent her career going where the story leads, asking difficult questions and helping people be heard. Nance's start was actually in a now defunct local paper in my area, the South-East Advertiser. She is now a two-time Walkley Award winner for excellence in journalism, and closer to home she was named Summerville House's 2022 Old Girl of the Year. Summerville House, a school, sits in South Brisbane, in my electorate of Griffith, so I was especially pleased to see Nance receive such warm recognition from her old school community.

As she accepted that honour, Nance spoke with great honesty about the choices and experiences that shaped her life in journalism. She talked about her early days as the ABC's only reporter in Port Augusta and about the reporting that earned her her first Walkley. She said:

I remember hearing on the police scanner that a riot was happening in Woomera… so I drove up there, an hour on the Stuart Highway, to this little speck on the desert map.

No one in town would talk to me except the guy who ran the petrol station.

I asked if he would let me on the roof of the petrol station so I could see what was happening at the detention centre, and in that outback kind of drawl he said, 'Sure, love.'

So that's where I sat, on the roof, on my own, watching the riot unfold, sending reports to national ABC programs on a crackly mobile phone.

Her second Walkley recognised an investigation into barriers faced by people with an intellectual disability in South Australia's justice system. Nance said:

My proudest moment from that harrowing investigation was actually not the Walkley Award—it was that my stories led to parliamentary inquiry in South Australia, to further investigate why the justice system was failing, society's most vulnerable.

And that led to the South Australia parliament changing legislation, and closing the loophole that prevented people with intellectual disability from giving evidence in a court of law.

That is public-interest journalism at its best. It reaches people locked out of public debate, tests systems that resist scrutiny and can change a law and change a life. Nance's career shows what journalism can achieve when a reporter has the time, skill and courage to follow a story. The next generation needs the skills to test information, identify credible sources and make sense of the news around them.

That brings me to a personal story from my own family dinner table. Founded by Bryce Corbett, Squiz Kids teaches media literacy to primary school children and is a proud Griffith success story. I first met Bryce many years ago when he worked at the Australian Women's Weekly, and it was wonderful to reconnect with him in my current role and hear about his work. One evening, my husband and I were having dinner with our two young boys when I noticed how closely they were following our conversation about a current national issue. They are now aged 11 and 13. They shared their own views, they offered facts that we did not even know and they even corrected a few things that we had said. They were confident, curious and informed.

I learned only later that the Squiz Kids program was running at my sons' primary school. I loved that moment of realisation, because it showed me what media literacy looks like in the life of a child. Squiz Kids helps young people understand the news, question what they see and separate fact from rumour. Reliable journalism needs an audience that can recognise and test it. Those skills start young. I was so proud to see that already in my two boys and, I know, thanks to Squiz Kids, thousands of young people across Australia are developing these skills.

My electorate of Griffith is home to a remarkable group of newsrooms, broadcasters and media workers. At South Bank, the ABC's Queensland headquarters carries Queensland stories across the country. SBS has its Brisbane office in the same precinct, connecting our city with a national service built around language, culture and belonging. NITV has Queensland based staff telling First Nations stories through First Nations eyes. Those journalists bring knowledge, trust and lived experience to their reporting, giving Queensland communities a direct voice in a national newsroom.

In Kangaroo Point, radio 4EB broadcasts in more than 50 languages from five studios, with more than 700 volunteers helping to put those programs to air. Earlier this year, I had the joy of visiting 4EB with the Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs, the member for Bruce. We saw how the station helps people stay informed and connected. For many people who have made Brisbane home, 4EB offers news, settlement information and a familiar voice in their own language. Its broadcasters can explain a storm warning or a government decision in words that listeners can understand and trust.

Across Brisbane, 4ZZZ has backed independent music, culture and community reporting for more than 50 years. The station gives local artists their first interview and gives community voices a place on air. In our broader Brisbane community, QNews reports on the lives, rights and experiences of the LGBTQIA+ community. Scenestr began in 1993 and continues to document our music, arts and cultural life. Today, Scenestr is Australia's only national entertainment print media group, publishing separate titles for different states. The publishing company also prints its sister title, Frooty, Australia's widest circulating LGBTQ+ title.

Each of these outlets serves a different audience and records stories that a generic global feed will miss. Local news tells us what a council decision means for our street. It explains a flood warning, follows a court case and introduces us to people building something good. Media diversity means people with different experiences deciding which stories deserve attention. It brings reporting in more languages from more suburbs and for audiences rarely served by the mass media. The value of journalism remains clear, but the business model that has funded it has changed sharply. Between 2006 and 2022, commercial broadcasters' share of Australian advertising spending fell from 43 per cent to 17 per cent. Much of that income moved online, into a market led by a small group of global platforms. Those platforms now capture a large share of digital advertising revenue, yet many Australian news businesses remain under intense financial pressure.

Companies such as Meta, TikTok, Google and LinkedIn operate services used by millions of Australians. These are multimillion-dollar multinational technology companies with immense commercial power. Australian journalism adds value to their platforms every day, giving people a reason to open an app, search for information or share a post. News keeps users engaged, and that attention supports digital advertising profits. The media outlet pays the journalist, funds the investigation, carries the legal risk and employs the photographer standing in the rain during a flood. The technology company gains value from the finished story appearing across its service. The bargaining imbalance is clear. A small Australian publisher enters any negotiation with far less money, data and legal power than a global platform. Without action, Australia risks losing local and regional news services, leaving fewer journalists, less media diversity and fewer people keeping watch over decisions made in our name. If platforms derive value from Australian journalism, they must help sustain it so that Australian newsrooms and journalists receive their fair share.

In 2021, the previous coalition government introduced the News Media Bargaining Code, which produced roughly 30 commercial agreements between Google, Meta and the Australian news businesses. But weaknesses in the original design of the code soon became clear. A platform could remove news from its service and avoid the bargaining obligation, leaving Australian publishers without payment and Australians at risk of losing access to trusted reporting. The Albanese Labor government is addressing this. This package strengthens the existing code by addressing that gap and keeping it effective as digital services, and the way Australians access news continue to change. Our model is practical and market based, with a clear preference for platforms and Australian news businesses to reach commercial agreements.

The News Bargaining Incentive applies a 2.5 per cent charge to Australian digital advertising revenue earned by search and social media services that meet the thresholds. Eligible agreements receive an offset equal to 150 per cent of their value, rising to 200 per cent for agreements with small and medium news businesses. That higher rate gives platforms a strong commercial reason to negotiate with smaller publishers, including outlets servicing local and diverse communities. A platform must hold eligible agreements with at least eight news organisations before it can access the offset, and no single agreement can account for more than 25 per cent of its total liability. Those rules encourage deals with a broader mix of Australian media organisations and limit the chance that a few agreements with the largest publishers absorb the full amount.

The principle is fair. A platform that derives its value from Australian news must help sustain it either through direct commercial agreements or by paying an incentive charge. The scheme recognises eligible good-faith agreements entered from 1 January 2025, allowing them to offset their news bargaining incentive liabilities from the commencement date. A platform can choose to pay the charge, but every dollar collected will return to the Australian news industry through the News Journalism Payment Scheme.

The News Journalism Payment Scheme puts journalists and newsroom jobs at the centre of its design. An organisation must appear on the register of eligible news businesses from the Australian Communications and Media Authority before it can seek a payment. Payments will follow a statutory formula based on the number of journalists employed, including freelancers, so an organisation with more journalists receives a larger payment. This reflects the greater investment that organisations make in public interest journalism. Basing payments on newsroom employment keeps the focus on people who gather facts, test evidence and produce reporting that the public can use. A 20 per cent uplift will apply for journalists employed in regional or remote Australia or by small and medium news organisations. It will cover journalists working for outlets servicing diverse communities, including First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse communities. This recognises the higher cost of employing journalists across regional and remote Australia, and responds to the financial pressure facing smaller publishers and community focused newsrooms.

Five per cent of the revenue raised from the News Bargaining Incentive will fund a separate grants program to help small publishers and start-ups grow their businesses and produce news for local communities. Small publishers often work with few staff and tight budgets, yet they can be the closest to the communities that they cover. A separate five per cent grant program will support Australian Associated Press, which makes a unique contribution to the production of local Australian news. The AAP supplies its newswire to more than 400 Australian publishers, including more than 300 in regional areas.

The design protects editorial independence, as ministers do not choose which stories deserve support. Payments follow clear rules linked to newsroom employment, registration and public interest news production. Government support for journalism must never purchase praise or soften scrutiny, and a strong and independent press will question every government, including this one. Labor believes work deserves fair pay, and journalism is highly skilled work the value of which does not vanish after a headline appears on a search page or a social feed. The news media bargaining bills put that principle into law.

For communities like my community of Griffith, the result we seek is clear. We want reporters in local newsrooms, producers behind microphones in studios across Brisbane and editors with time to check the facts. We want First Nations stories told by First Nations journalists. We want multicultural communities to hear trusted information in the languages spoken at home. And we want young people to grow up curious, informed and ready to question what they see. Australian democracy needs journalists with the time and backing to do their jobs, and Australian communities need newsrooms that know their people and places. These bills help secure a sustainable, diverse and independent Australian news industry by backing Australian journalism, Australian newsrooms and Australian jobs.

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