Albanese government set to pass new media bargaining code

Jono Searle/ AAP Published: August 12, 2026 4:09pm EDT The Albanese government is set to legislate a new media bargaining code to make tech companies pay for the news journalism they reuse. This follows discussions between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor this week and some tweaks to the exposure draft. The News Bargaining Incentive and the News Journalism Payments bills will be introduced to parliament on Thursday. Under the scheme, companies will be forced to pay a tax based on their Australian digital advertising revenue if they fail to strike deals with Australian publishers. The arrangement will apply to platforms including Google, Meta, and TikTok among others. AI platforms will not be covered by the new deal. The government has outlined several changes to its earlier draft. The minimum number of deals that platforms will be required to do to meet the conditions of the scheme has been increased from six to eight. The pre-deal cap of 25% of the total levy has been reinstated. It means no single deal can offset more than 25% of a platform’s obligation under the scheme. This undoes a change made after consultation on the exposure draft legislation to lower the cap. The government says this change will ensure “more appropriate offsets are available to Australian media organisations of all sizes, reflecting more closely their reach and significance in the market”. But critics will say that the bigger cap will favour the larger organisations at the expense of the smaller ones, especially in the regions. The government will counter that this doesn’t apply as they have increased the number of deals required to fully acquit a company’s tax liability. There has been a change also to the year that the base rate is calculated, to use the two years previous rather than three years. The government says this will better reflect the actual state of deals in the market, given rapid change in that market. Finally, 5% of any incentive funds will be directed to Australian Associated Press (AAP), a major news-wire service. This is “a recognition of the important role it plays in supporting public interest journalism and news organisations across Australia,” the government says. Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino said the government wanted “to see deals between digital platforms and a diverse range of media organisations to ensure fair recompense for the use of content. "We also want to ensure the media sector is strengthened from large companies to small ones, recognising the significant benefits strong journalism brings to communities across the nation.” Communications Minister Anika Wells said: “People access news in different ways and from different sources, which is why we made changes to the distribution scheme to better support smaller and diverse media organisations”. The legislation is expected to pass in this parliamentary fortnight. Want to write? Write an article and join a growing community of more than 231,200 academics and researchers from 5,588 institutions. Register now