Stirling Griff (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

I was previously speaking on the Copyright Amendment (Disability Access and Other Measures) Bill 2017, about unique content.

As the 'Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on copyright in the Digital Single Market' states:

Press publishers are facing difficulties in licensing their publications online and obtaining a fair share of the value they generate. This could ultimately affect citizens' access to information.

In his State of the European Union speech last year, the President of the European Commission said:

I want journalists, publishers and authors to be paid fairly for their work, whether it is made in studios or living rooms, whether it is disseminated offline or online, whether it is published via a copying machine or commercially hyperlinked on the web.

This should be the goal of Australia's copyright laws too. We have started the process; let's not drop the ball when so much of what underpins us as a democratic society is at stake—that we value creative endeavour and fairness.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.