Ash Ambihaipahar (Barton, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

I used to roll my eyes when people older than me would say, simply: 'Delete the internet.' They would argue that social media plays on our short attention span, our desire for entertainment over information and, too often, our pettiness over our commitment to truth, accountability and public interest. At the time, I did not really want to hear it. I'm a millennial. I grew up with the internet, and for me, it was a way to connect with friends, discover new music, post photos from a night out in Hurstville and share what I was doing when I went overseas to work in the United States. But social media today does not feel like that anymore. It is not really social. It is competitive. It's harsh. It is designed to keep people scrolling and, too often, keep them angry enough to keep arguing in the comments.

I accept that, as users, we all have a responsibility to engage with these platforms ethically and carefully. We should look out for our fellow users as well, and we should look out for our neighbours. But those of us in this place also have a responsibility to regulate how social media works and to ensure these platforms are not allowed to shape our public life without accountability. And that is why I'm proud to be part of a government that has introduced a social media ban for under-16s, is looking at a digital duty of care and is strengthening the news media bargaining incentive, which is what we are here debating tonight with the News Journalism Payments Bill 2026 and other bills. So, no, we are not deleting the internet, but we are creating an online world that serves us rather than itself.

One consequence of the attention economy is that it has weakened the fourth estate. It has changed the way local stories are told, shared and sustained, and I think it has changed that for the worse. Our local papers are struggling. Local journalists are battling to keep their publications afloat and to reach people online. In their place we see dozens and dozens of local creators competing for the same attention, and in that environment, the easiest way to engage the algorithm is often to make people angry. I can't stand that, but that is the reality that we're dealing with.

At the end of the day, those who benefit from the hard work of these creators are the platforms themselves. More Australians are relying on social media feeds for news, searching, scrolling and following whoever offers the most timely and personalised service. So newsrooms are employing new types of journalists, video editors, designers and story editors to grab attention. Yet again, the platform is the one benefiting from this activity. What we're talking about today is a law that ensures that digital platforms that benefit from Australian news content contribute to its long-term sustainability. It's about making sure news is not cannibalised by the attention economy. It's about supporting public interest journalism and protecting Australians right to know.

Quality journalism is costly to produce. It takes time to investigate a story properly, check the facts, speak to the people affected and make sure the public is getting information they can trust. That work matters. It is how people find out what is happening in their community, how local issues get attention, how citizens form their own views and how they hold people in public life to account. But the money that used to help pay for that work has changed. For a long time, newspapers and local publishers relied on advertising revenue to fund their journalism. Now much of that advertising money has moved to a smaller number of global digital platforms. Those platforms make money from keeping people online, and they often benefit when Australian news is shared, searched for or discussed on their services.

If these platforms benefit from Australian news, it is only fair that they help sustain it, otherwise we risk a media environment where careful reporting is pushed aside by whatever keeps us scrolling the longest. That is not the same as being informed. It's not the same as being connected. A healthy democracy needs more than content. It needs public interest journalism that tells local stories, connects people and helps citizens understand decisions made in their name.

The News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code was a world-first initiative. It took effect on 3 March 2021 and helped secure commercial agreements between digital platforms and Australian news businesses. But digital and news markets have continued to change, and advertising revenue has kept moving from traditional news businesses to large digital platforms. The News Bargaining Incentive responds to that change. It applies a 2.75 per cent charge to Australian digital advertising revenue earned by significant search and social media services, but the government's clear preference is for the platforms to avoid paying the charge by reaching commercial agreements with new businesses.

The design of the scheme encourages those commercial deals. Platforms can reduce their liability through eligible agreements with offsets of 150 per cent or 200 per cent for agreements with small and medium news businesses. To access the offset, platforms must have agreements with at least eight eligible news organisations, and no single agreement can account for more than 25 per cent of their total liability. That encourages a broader mix of deals across the sector, including with Australian media organisations of different sizes. Any revenue collected through the NBI will be returned in full to the Australian news industry through the News Journalism Payment Scheme.

The bills also recognise good-faith commercial agreements entered into since 1 January 2025 by allowing them to offset MBI liabilities. Payments under the News Journalism Payment Scheme will be based on the number of journalists an organisation employs, including freelancers. Eligible roles include journalists, photojournalists, videographers, data and visual journalists, editors and producers directly involved in producing core news content. That recognises the essential work journalists do in investigating, analysing, reporting and producing the news Australians rely on, especially during the transition to digital first.

There will also be a 20 per cent uplift for journalists employed in regional and remote Australia by small and medium news organisations and by news organisations serving diverse communities, including First Nations and culturally and linguistically diverse communities. This recognises the additional challenges faced by regional, smaller and community focused publishers. Payment recipients will also be required to maintain journalist employment over the relevant period, ensuring the scheme directly supports Australian journalism jobs.

Five per cent of NBI revenue will be dedicated to a separate grants program to support small publishers and start-ups to grow their businesses and produce news for local communities. A further five per cent will be allocated to a separate grants program for the Australian Associated Press, recognising its unique contribution to local Australian news content. Together, these bills strengthen the news media bargaining code, support commercial investment in Australian journalism, return any incentive revenue to the sector and help secure a sustainable, diverse and independent news media industry for the future.

I want to focus particularly on the uplift for small and medium organisations and for publications that serve diverse communities. In Barton, people have always relied on smaller papers to understand what is actually happening around them. This includes papers like the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader, as well as in-language publications like the Middle East Herald, the Greek Herald, the Nepali News and the Australian Chinese Daily. The journalists often know the area, live in the community and understand the local issues because they are part of the fabric of the place.

We often talk about social cohesion. We talk about people feeling disconnected, about not knowing their neighbours and about communities feeling more fragmented than they used to. I think the decline of local journalism is part of that story. If the only stories appearing on your phone are about people and places on the other side of the world, it becomes harder to feel connected to what is actually happening down the road. How are you supposed to know what your neighbours care about if no-one is reporting on the school fundraiser at Carlton South Public School, the local sports club, like the St George basketball team, making the grand final, the council meeting where they're deciding on the future of the Beverly Hills town centre masterplan, the new small business or the community group looking for volunteers? And, honestly, how are you supposed to know what your rates are paying for if there's no local paper keeping an eye on council? I joke, but all of these small things really matter.

Local journalism is one of the ways communities hold institutions to account, but it's also one of the ways we find each other. It tells us where the meetings are, where the festivals are, what is changing in our streets and who is doing good work nearby. Therefore, when more and more of what we see is decided by international algorithms, it is no wonder people can feel isolated in their own feeds. That is why I hope the support provided through this bill helps local organisations move and grow in the digital space while still maintaining the quality of their print journalism. I want to keep seeing publications like the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader in my inbox and on the stand at a news agency, because without local papers we do not just lose stories; we lose some of the connective tissues that help the community see itself, understand itself, scrutinise itself and celebrate itself.

In concluding this speech, I want to reflect on some of the words of the Hon. Doug McClelland, a Barton legend and the first minister for media in Australia. Doug turned 100 years old just the other week, and I thought it was only appropriate to cite his speech 'Creating an Australian awareness' delivered for the AN Smith Memorial Lecture in Journalism at the University of Melbourne in 1973. He said:

Australia is entering a new and challenging future as an independent decision making power. It is becoming an inner-directed society. Creativity and planning on a national and individual level should emanate from our own ethos.

I realise that in this age of internationalism we must welcome a free flow and interchange of information and ideas, but in this area, as in any other, we must look to developing our individuality related to our own environment, heritage, outlook and problems. We need to encourage freedom to initiate, originate and experiment…

…And finally, let me point out that the policy of open government that we aim for is one of participatory democracy.

The right to elect Government is meaningless in practice unless ordinary citizens are given the knowledge upon which to base their judgements.

That remains true today.

Australian journalism underpins the work we do in this place. It gives people the information they need to judge us, question us and understand the decisions being made in their name. It is vital to our democracy and to who we are as a nation. Our Australian story should be told by Australian voices, Australian journalists and people who know our communities from the inside. If we want that story to survive the pull of the algorithm, we have to back the people who report it. We have to fund Australian journalism properly. That is why I'm proud to support legislation that does exactly that.

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