David Moncrieff (Hughes, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

Public interest journalism is an essential pillar of our vigorous Australian democracy. The fourth estate has been at the heart of some of the most pivotal moments in our nation's history, witnessing events as they play out and reporting back to us at home. It is impossible to separate the story of our nation from the journalists who recorded it. From the reporting of Sir Keith Murdoch on the beaches at Gallipoli in the First World War to the investigative reporting of Brian Toohey and Marian Wilkinson, whose work exposed systemic corruption and laid the groundwork for the Fitzgerald inquiry in Queensland, to the local radio broadcasters and regional print media who gave critical evacuation orders in the Black Summer bushfires, documenting the bravery of our firefighters and giving voice to affected regional towns across the South Coast.

It's not just the big headlines. Local newspapers like St George & Sutherland Shire Leader, South West Voice and Good Morning Macarthur cover events in my electorate of Hughes and give voice to communities that often go unheard, telling stories, advocating for their interests and holding local authorities to account. They represent the unique experiences and identity of the suburbs and of the small towns and the bush. They cover the council meetings where plans are made, celebrate the local weekend footy scores and honour the passing of local heroes. Community news outlets are critical to facilitating shared narratives and fostering local history right across Australia.

Public interest journalism speaks truth to power and strengthens social cohesion. It can challenge decision-makers, but it can also be a bulwark for facts and sobriety. In the modern media landscape, information is often fragmented and fractured. In some ways, this is a good thing. Independent news can provide a diverse array of viewpoints that challenge powerful interests that claim a monopoly on truth, but, too often, algorithmic echo chambers play to people's prejudices, driving division and polarising public opinion. Social media can promote outrage over reasonable disagreement and sensationalism over respect for knowledge, threatening the bonds between Australians that are core to our common life.

The word media comes from the Latin medius, meaning middle. Public interest journalism is not only a medium of communication; it also forms a crucial part of the independent centre in Australian civil society. As social media drives fragmentation in the way that Australians get their news, the economics of digital platforms work in the other direction. Agglomeration effects have driven concentration and given big tech companies like Meta, Google and TikTok substantial market power. Quality journalism is costly to produce, and the commercial revenue that supports Australian news businesses has faced a steady decline. For decades, the business model of local journalism was simple, stable and self-sustaining. Newspapers functioned as two-sided markets. On one side, they provided essential local news to readers. On the other side, they provided local businesses, real estate agents, classified advertisers and job recruiters with direct access to a captive local audience.

This steady flow of advertising revenue was enough to cover the operations of local newspapers, but the advent of the internet and an increasing concentration of large digital platforms dissolved this model. When a small business in southern Sydney wants to advertise, they no longer always place their ad in a local newspaper. Often, they're instead setting up a Meta account and placing targeted ads, sitting back as the user impressions accumulate.

A small number of global digital platforms now capture substantial digital advertising revenue while many Australian news outlets face financial pressures that threaten the viability of their business. Large digital platforms hold substantial bargaining power over Australian news outlets, reducing the financial benefits that Australian news businesses can extract from their advertising. Media diversity goes much deeper than the major outlets. It lives in the suburban newsrooms, the regional weeklies and the local digital publications that serve communities across Australia.

A subscription based funding model is typically not enough to sustain local papers and regional news services. While a handful of major publications can build digital paywalls with hundreds of thousands of subscribers, smaller, regional publishers operate in markets with smaller populations. They are often unable to reach the critical mass of subscribers that make their operations commercially viable. Low subscription conversion rates are often barely enough to cover salaries, superannuation, equipment and insurance for a handful of full-time journalists before accounting for legal costs, web hosting or distribution.

Without adequate funding, too many Australians risk losing the local papers and stations that are critical to media diversity, regional representation and local knowledge. In the Sutherland Shire, we have the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader, and I remember a time when that was at every household and widely read. It is still a really significant institution in our community and does some amazing work, but its spread is not what it used to be. It is now behind a paywall, as this media organisation adjusts to a new economy. That has presented some real threats to media in the local area of the Sutherland Shire.

When a local newspaper in an outer suburban or regional community goes under, it wounds the civic ties that hold communities together. Municipal accountability vanishes as local councils allocate millions in ratepayer funds, with their deliberations occurring in a vacuum of accountability. Gone is the local court reporter, ensuring that the justice system is visible, transparent and fair. No-one is there to tell the story of the local charity drive, the achievements of the high school netball team or the local small business putting in the hard yakka to serve their community.

These 'little platoons', to quote Edmund Burke, the local groups we hold dear and the nostalgia we hold for our home are often the most vital expressions of patriotism and love towards our country and our neighbours. The stories of these little platoons are the stories that get overlooked by big media conglomerates consumed by the daily spectacle of partisan politics. National news networks lack the local knowledge or the economic incentive to care about health access in Menai, traffic in Moorebank or outstanding school achievements in Ingleburn. These are the lived experiences that matter to the people in Hughes—the quiet Australians of the outer suburbs busily tending to their local community.

Quality local journalism builds trust and social capital. It creates a shared sense of place and mutual obligation. It's what threads new developments into connected communities. By allowing local media to financially starve, to pursue mergers and takeovers for survival, we risk losing the quiet local voices amidst the loud din of national headlines and political personalities.

The bills that are before us today are about making big tech companies pay their fair share to Australian news businesses. They are about ensuring the sustainability of Australian journalism today and into the future. The news bargaining incentive introduced in these bills will encourage digital platforms to make commercial deals with media organisations for use of their content, and, if they don't, they will be subject to a 2.5 per cent charge on their digital advertising revenue made in Australia.

To reduce this liability, significant search and social media services can enter into eligible commercial agreements with large news businesses for offsets of 150 per cent, or up to 200 per cent for deals with small- or medium-sized news businesses. Platforms must have agreements with at least eight eligible news organisations to access the offset, and no single agreement can account for more than 25 per cent of their total liability. This encourages platforms to reach a broader mix of deals across the sector, including with Australian media.

The carrot-and-stick approach outlined in these bills will encourage big tech companies to strike deals with Australian news businesses that will continue to fund quality journalism into the future. If they do not, revenue collected from the charge imposed will go towards supporting the production of core news in Australia, administered through the News Journalism Payment Scheme. The News Journalism Payment Scheme is designed to support the production of core news in Australia. Under ACMA's definition, this includes:

Content that reports, investigates or explains:

Of the revenue collected from the charge, 10 per cent of overall funding will be set aside for grants, as well as five per cent for the funding of the Australian Associated Press and five per cent for small organisations unable to enter into deals through the scheme.

Revenue raised by the news bargaining incentive will be allocated to eligible news organisations based on the number of journalists they employ. This recognises that the greater the number of journalists employed, the more substantial the investment in public-interest journalism. Using journalists as the basis for payments reflects the essential work they do in investigating, analysing, reporting and producing the news that Australians rely on.

These bills also expand the definition of a journalist to include other essential roles, including photojournalists, videographers, data or visual journalists, editors or producers and freelancers and volunteers for low-revenue organisations that produce core news content. News production isn't the preserve of a sole scribe hammering away at their typewriter. It's a complex and highly integrated system. Expanding the definition of journalism recognises the critical role that these jobs play right across the value chain and is properly reflective of modern news production. Payment recipients will be required to maintain journalist employment over the relevant period, ensuring the scheme directly supports jobs in Australian journalism.

An additional uplift of 20 per cent will also be applied to journalists who work in regional and remote areas, for small- to medium-sized news organisations and for those working in news organisations that cater to diverse communities. This is reflective of the challenges that many smaller local papers, especially those in regional communities, face in employing journalists. Five per cent of any revenue raised by the news bargaining incentive will be allocated to a separate grants program focusing on supporting small publishers and startups to scale their businesses and produce news for their local community.

This approach is practical and market based. It encourages digital platforms and Australian news businesses to strike mutually beneficial agreements, while guaranteeing the funding for smaller news outlets that is critical to sustaining choice and diversity. Large digital platforms extract massive commercial value from Australian journalism, but the asymmetries in bargaining power between global tech giants and Australian news outlets have meant that, for far too long, digital platforms have not contributed their fair share, while Australian news businesses have gone broke.

Public interest journalism is not a nice to have. It is a necessary element of a flourishing democracy and common life in Australia. I spoke earlier around the reach of the St George & Sutherland Shire Leader, which has declined, but I remember a time when there were other papers in the Sutherland Shire as well. There was the Engadine Pictorial News, which didn't get spread quite as far as the Leader did, but there was a diversity of media coverage, and that is the kind of diversity of media coverage that this bill is fostering.

These bills ensure stability and a secure funding pipeline for Australian journalism, supporting commercial investment and returning incentive revenue to the secure. They will help to support a dynamic and diverse Australian news industry well into the future. I commend these bills to the House.

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