Nine boss Matt Stanton flags confidence in tech levy despite Trump tariff fears
The acting Nine chief has expressed confidence in Labor's tech levy, as he advances a board-mandated reform agenda that will strip $100m in costs out of the company by the end of 2027.
Nine Entertainment’s acting CEO Matt Stanton has expressed confidence in the government’s ability to impose a levy on tech giants despite fears of retaliation from the Trump administration, and confirmed ambitions to take the job on a permanent basis.
Labor’s tech levy, dubbed the news bargaining incentive, became the source of renewed doubt over the weekend, after US President Donald Trump ordered the US Trade Representative to revive investigations into digital service taxes levied by foreign governments on US tech firms.
Stanton, however, suggested that the policy proposal could be spared from Trump’s escalating global trade war because the framework incentivises commercial deal-making and has been pitched by Labor as a charge-and-offset scheme rather than a new tax.
“Obviously it’s definitely changed, the situation from three, six months ago. But the conversations I’ve had with the government have been very positive and constructive recently,” Stanton told Capital Brief on Tuesday.
