22 OCTOBER, INTERVIEW, ABC RADIO NATIONAL WITH ANDY PARK
Andy Park
Australian newsrooms are counting their final pennies from the big tech companies as funding from meta and Google under the news media bargaining code dries up as the government scrambles to build a life raft for regional and rural newsrooms. The Joint Select Committee on social media and Australian society has handed down its interim report focused on messes, decision to abandon its deals with Australian news organizations, but with hundreds of jobs axed across the country in recent months, is it too little too late? Labor MP for Newcastle, Sharon Claydon is the chair of the community and joins me now. Welcome to you.
Sharon Claydon
Thanks for having me.
Andy Park
This report acknowledges the quote limitations of the news media bargaining code and urges the government to explore alternative revenue mechanisms. I want to come to that, but I want to take a bit more of a look at this admission that the bargaining code is effectively dead. Is it?
Sharon Claydon
The report's not saying it is effectively dead, but it is saying that it's not a piece of legislation we should set and forget about that the world of the digital platforms, world is constantly evolving, and so too must government, regulatory frameworks and laws and the committees had an opportunity to take a lot of evidence from a wide range of experts and journalists and researchers the big tech companies themselves, and to weigh that all up and say, Well, you know, there are some structural flaws that we can see in this news media bargaining code. We don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water, necessarily, but there's room for improvement, and we absolutely need to consider the ways in which revenue is not just, you know, gathered, but the way that it is distributed. There needs to be some sort of transparency around that and and we also recognize the need for a digital media competency Fund, which is really for consumers of of news and and digital media, that's both young Australians, but also a whole range of other vulnerable groups who are very much at risk of MIS and disinformation taking over if they don't have access to good, verified news sources. So
Andy Park
coming to the recommendation from the committee about a digital platform levy to supplement the bargaining code. How that work?
Sharon Claydon
Well, it's asking the government to look at the options. There are a range of options that we examined in both the UK and the EU. So there are some international examples there to to look at. And I think that there's the committee is just saying, you know, there are different ways in which we can explore revenue mechanisms that in and of itself, the code is not going to be hasn't delivered enough. And I think it was very clear to the committee that many of the smaller, the smaller publications, the digital only publishers, people who were in I guess, small, independent areas of media were really stressing with us that they felt really excluded from the news media bargaining code, so not everybody got to share equally from the intent of that law. So that's another area where we've said, you know, we need to actually make this a code that is working for everybody. And there is no doubt that the committee's concerns around, you know, meta decision to abandon those financial arrangements under the news media bargaining code really put a big spotlight on the important role of Australian journalism, of news and the public interest media in particular, encountering the MIS and disinformation that flies with abundance on digital platforms when there is no access to verified news media. Australian people want a trusted source of information. You
Andy Park
spoke about overseas examples, and I was speaking to Alistair McGibbon earlier in the program, talking about how these big tech companies essentially see themselves as above the law in 2021 the US state of Maryland passed a tax on digital advertising in the state has since spent years, literally years, fighting off multiple lawsuits. So you can't imagine these big tech companies would be amenable to this Levy. Have you thought about the time wasted in that battle?
Sharon Claydon
I don't think it's time wasted. Let's hope that there isn't such a ferocious battle in the first place. Because I think there's increased realization that in order for social media to operate, they need some sense of social license, and that's going to come from some social responsibility. At the moment, there is a grave sense of these big tech companies trying to escape accountability. I know that they you know, they have a different position that they have put to the committee themselves, but on reflection of all the evidence received by the committee, you know, it was very obvious to us that there needed to be increased accountability on the big tech companies. They absolutely need to exercise social responsibility in order to have a social license to operate in Australia and that, you know, evading domestic laws like pretending you're a big global entity accountable to no one's laws. I think those days are numbered. This
Andy Park
committee is chaired by two labor MPs, including yourself. Can we take this in from report as an indication of where the Labor Party is leading when it comes to the regulation of digital platforms?
Sharon Claydon
This is a report of the Committee of a whole. I was, you know, very, very pleased in a very constructive manner in which the cross bench and the Greens participated. I note that the coalition has put a dissenting report in, and that was just really disappointing, to be honest. I mean, I understand they're trying to defend, you know, their legislation at the news media bargaining code. This is not a report against that code, but it is saying that that code, you know, we need to be open to improving that code. And so, you know, you can't just say what happened, what was an effective measure in 2021 which the whole of the parliament supported. There was no argument about that, that that is still, you know, fit for purpose. In 2024 we know that this is a massively evolving digital space, and our laws and frameworks regulation are going to have to keep a pace. So, you know, I really hope that the coalition overcomes that sort of, you know, knee jerk reaction to just keep defending laws that they were able to implement through the former government. I'm happy to acknowledge the former government's role in that, but it's time to actually look at the ways that we can improve and build on that foundation.
Andy Park
We'll have to leave it there. Chair of the Joint Select Committee on social media and Australian society, Sharon Claydon, appreciate your time this afternoon.
Sharon Claydon
Thanks very much.
