The easy politics of forcing Meta to pay up
There are fears behind the scenes in Canberra that the Albanese government will act hastily to curry favour with Australia's largest media companies heading into the next election.
Back when he was an opposition backbencher a little over three years ago, Ed Husic said he was suspicious of the Morrison government’s news media bargaining code, which he dismissed as a “News Corp bailout” rather than a “genuine attempt to level the playing field”.
“I’m sure these new, soon to be released government media reforms are absolutely about creating more independent media, better funded journalism… Not about pumping money into the shareholders of News Corp and Murdoch Lite 9Fairfax,” Husic mockingly posted on Facebook on 4 December, 2020.
Now a cabinet minister in the Albanese government, Husic would not comment on Monday about his government’s plan to force Facebook owner Meta to pay media companies for content under that very same code.
Meta’s announcement on Friday that it was pulling out of funding deals, which were highly lucrative for Australia’s major news companies, has prompted a flurry of front page stories in the News Corp and Nine papers. It also sparked sharp rebukes from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones, who has been given responsibility for designating Meta under the code.
