Tech platforms that refuse to strike deals with Australian news publishers will pay a charge of 2.5 per cent of their Australian advertising revenue, up from a proposed 2.25 per cent, Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino said on 3 August.
The final design of the News Bargaining Incentive also brings LinkedIn into the scheme by removing an earlier exemption for professional networking services, and legislation will be introduced when parliament returns later in August. Any money collected under the charge will be directed to the news media sector. The charge applies to companies with Australian revenue above A$250 million, about US$176 million, a group that takes in Meta, Google, TikTok and LinkedIn.
Mulino told ABC Radio National the charge base had been narrowed from total local revenue to advertising revenue, with the rate lifted “to make sure that the overall amount of money raised by the deals entered into by these platforms with the media is about the same.” He defended the design against suggestions it could breach trade obligations. “We’re confident that the arrangements that we’re putting forward in this legislation are appropriate and are consistent with all of our obligations,” he said.
How the news bargaining incentive works
The scheme is built so that platforms which sign agreements with publishers can reduce the charge, and platforms which sign nothing pay the full 2.5 per cent. Every dollar spent on deals with large publishers cancels A$1.50 of liability, according to The Daily Aus, while each dollar spent with smaller and regional outlets cancels A$2, and a platform must sign with at least six publishers to qualify. Because agreements cancel liability at better than one to one, a platform that spends enough on publisher deals can reduce its charge to zero. The charge base was narrowed from total revenue after pushback from tech companies during consultation.
Communications Minister Anika Wells said the design was meant to sustain journalism rather than raise revenue. “We want new journalists. We want innovators in this space. We want there to be an incentive for that to continue, not to diminish,” she said. The incentive follows the 2021 News Media Bargaining Code, which pushed Google and Meta into commercial agreements with Australian publishers before Meta declined to renew its deals in 2024, saying at the time that “people don’t come to Facebook for news and political content.”
Meta criticised the new scheme in a June blog post, saying it “will leave Australian journalism dependent on a government-administered subsidy regime while doing little to help smaller publishers and independent journalists.” The company has also argued the charge is inconsistent with the Australia United States free trade agreement, and it described an earlier version of the proposal as “grossly unfair.” Publishers are not satisfied either: News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller said tech giants “cannot keep dodging their obligations” and argued the changes make it too easy for platforms to reduce the charge.
The levy adds to a series of disputes between Canberra and the platforms, including the under-16 social media ban that took effect in December 2025. The government first announced the incentive in December 2024, and said then that the charge would apply whether or not a platform carries news on its services, a design that closed off the route Meta took in Canada, where it blocked news links rather than pay publishers. A draft of the scheme followed in April 2026 at the lower rate, and consultation closed in May.
Mulino said he expects the platforms to negotiate rather than walk away from news. “A number of tech companies have engaged with the consultation program process, and we expect that once this legislation is passed, I expect a number of them will engage in discussions with the media,” he said. Parliament resumes later in August, when the bill is due to be introduced.
