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senate vote 2021-02-24#3
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2022-04-22 12:45:06
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Title
Bills — Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2021; in Committee- Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2021 - in Committee - Audits, review and penalty
Description
<p class="speaker">Sue Lines</p><p>The question is that items (2) to (5) on sheet PG138 be agreed to.</p>-
- The majority voted against [amendments](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2021-02-24.289.1) introduced by South Australian Senator [Rex Patrick](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/senate/sa/rex_patrick) (Independent), which means the amendments failed.
- Senator Patrick [explained his amendments](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2021-02-24.289.1):
- > *These amendments deal with yet another aspect of the situation—the opaque nature of the algorithms and business practices of big tech. A fairly new area of engineering, which I know might be foreign to those present in the chamber, is where independent auditors look at algorithms—it can be algorithms in respect of commercial applications or algorithms used by government—to make sure that those algorithms are performing the functions that they ought to perform and, indeed, not introducing unintended consequences into what are automated processes.*
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- > *[...]*
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- > *The ACCC actually has the power to go and look at the activities and, indeed, the algorithms of companies—that was confirmed by Mr Sims at the committee inquiry—and the intent of this amendment is to make sure that the ACCC does so. Whilst they have the power now, there is no requirement for them to do algorithm audits.*
<p>Question agreed to.</p> <p class="speaker">Sarah Hanson-Young</p><p>by leave—I move Australian Greens amendments (1) to (3) on sheet 1195 together:</p><p class="italic">(1) Schedule 1, item 1, page 48 (after line 25), after Division 9, insert:</p><p class="italic">Division 9A—Reporting to assist in monitoring benefits to public interest journalism from code</p><p class="italic">52ZZMA Annual report by registered news business corporations</p><p class="italic">(1) For the purposes of monitoring the benefits to public interest journalism in Australia from the operation of this Part, a registered news business corporation for a registered news business must, at the end of each financial year, prepare and give to the ACMA a report relating to the financial year that complies with the requirements in this section.</p><p class="italic"> <i>Content of report</i></p><p class="italic">(2) The report must include the following information:</p><p class="italic">(a) a description of the activities undertaken by the registered news business corporation (and any related bodies corporate of the corporation) during the financial year that supported the creation of core news content;</p><p class="italic">(b) for the news content created by each news source that comprises the registered news business—the proportion of the news content that was core news content;</p><p class="italic">(c) for the amount of code-related remuneration of the registered news business corporation for the financial year—the proportion of the amount:</p><p class="italic">  (i) that has been expended during the financial year for the primary purpose of the registered news business creating core news content; and</p><p class="italic">  (ii) that has been committed for expenditure in a subsequent financial year for the primary purpose of the registered news business creating core news content;</p><p class="italic">(d) if regulations made for the purposes of this paragraph specify other information that must be included in the report—that information.</p><p class="italic">(3) For the purposes of paragraph (2) (c), the <i>code</i><i>-related remuneration</i> of a registered news business corporation for a registered news business means the remuneration that:</p><p class="italic">(a) is paid to the registered news business corporation (or a related body corporate of the corporation); and</p><p class="italic">(b) is remuneration for the making available of the registered news business' covered news content by a designated digital platform service; and</p><p class="italic">(c) is paid under or in connection with any one or more of the following:</p><p class="italic">  (i) an agreement reached as a result of bargaining under Division 6 (bargaining) and notified to the Commission under section 52ZI;</p><p class="italic">  (ii) a determination of the remuneration amount made under section 52ZX (final offer arbitration);</p><p class="italic">  (iii) an agreement notified to the Commission under paragraph 52ZZK(1) (e) (section 52ZZK relates to agreements resulting from standard offers);</p><p class="italic">  (iv) an agreement notified to the Commission under paragraph 52ZZL(1) (g) (section 52ZZL relates to agreements to contract out of the general requirements, bargaining and arbitration provisions of this Part);</p><p class="italic">  (v) an agreement dealing with matters covered by this Part, including the remuneration issue, that it is reasonable to assume would not have been entered into by the relevant parties to the agreement if this Part was not enacted.</p><p class="italic">(4) An agreement referred to in subparagraph (3) (c) (v) includes:</p><p class="italic">(a) an agreement entered into on or after 9 December 2020 but before the commencement of this Part; and</p><p class="italic">(b) an agreement entered into on or after the commencement of this Part.</p><p class="italic">Note: In paragraph (a), 9 December 2020 is the date the Bill providing for the enactment of this Part was introduced into the Parliament.</p><p class="italic"> <i>Timing of report</i></p><p class="italic">(5) The registered news business corporation must give the report to the ACMA within 30 days after the end of the financial year to which the report relates.</p><p class="italic"> <i>Publication of report</i></p><p class="italic">(6) The ACMA must publish on the ACMA's website a copy of each report given to the ACMA under this section within 14 days of receiving the report.</p><p class="italic">(2) Schedule 1, item 9, page 53 (line 3), omit "or 52ZZF(1)", substitute ", 52ZZF(1) or 52ZZMA(1)".</p><p class="italic">(3) Schedule 1, item 10, page 53 (line 18), at the end of subsection (4A), add:</p><p class="italic">; (k) subsection 52ZZMA(1).</p><p>These amendments are in relation to making sure that the revenue that is collected as a result of this piece of legislation is spent on journalism here in Australia. This is an important amendment, because we know, after all of these long debates, about the importance of ensuring that our media organisations here in Australia are able to be sustainable and are able continue to do their important work in public interest journalism. The last thing we want to see is some of these big corporations, particularly, international affiliations, whether that be News Corp or others, be able to bank this money, to put it into the coffers or to put the money to the boardrooms rather than the newsrooms. This is about sending a message directly to media corporations that there is an expectation that for the parliament to introduce this type of mandatory code, to go through this arbitration process, to ensure that the money is actually spent on creating more public interest journalism, not just more money for shareholders. I would like the government to at least give an indication that that is their expectation: that this money is spent on journalism jobs here in Australia and on creating public interest journalism in this country. It's not to be frittered away on extra curricula activities by board members or executives.</p> <p class="speaker">Louise Pratt</p><p>The sentiment behind these amendments is important, but we cannot support these amendments, because they are unachievable. The MEAA, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, said: 'This is a major concern. We can't see where the revenue is going to go and how it is going to be directed to additional journalists or journalism.' The issue is this amendment does not achieve that accountability in any way whatsoever. The only way you could do that would be by deeper powers of inquiry for the ACCC, for example, to scrutinise the contracts. Amendments like these do very little or, in fact, nothing, or would even exacerbate or overemphasise some streams of revenue without even actually recognising where the real commercial interests lie. It is a naive interpretation of this legislation to think that amendments like these will fix this problem.</p><p>We've just had a big discussion about ranking et cetera that will, clearly, be a driver of revenue. There may not even be anything explicit, that you can identify, that demonstrates how there's been an uplift in revenue for one organisation versus another. It goes right down to the details of the deals that are done, and this kind of amendment does nothing to provide that transparency.</p> <p class="speaker">Jane Hume</p><p>The government will be opposing this amendment.</p> <p class="speaker">Sarah Hanson-Young</p><p>Just to be clear, does the minister expect that the revenue generated by this code will be spent on journalism here in Australia or not?</p> <p class="speaker">Rex Patrick</p><p>I want to ask the minister if the government have an expectation that the revenue that flows from these deals will be spent in Australia—I just want to indicate I'll be supporting this amendment. It does create a minimum level of content that would be in any annual report. It doesn't prohibit further explanation by companies; it simply sets a minimum standard and, right now, the minimum is nothing. So this does more good than harm.</p> <p class="speaker">Louise Pratt</p><p>I need to further place on the record that such an amendment as is put forward does represent, in this legislation, a new regulatory burden. It could be onerous if unevenly applied. We've seen that a number of news media businesses have negotiated deals ahead of the passage of this bill. How, then, this legislation relates to reporting against this, in terms of how it's enlivened, auditing and enforcement—there is a clear risk, in our assessment, that this kind of reporting regime could underline the independence of some news media outlets.</p> <p class="speaker">Glenn Sterle</p><p>The question is that Greens amendments (1) to (3) on sheet 1195 revised, moved by leave together, be agreed to.</p><p>Question negatived.</p> <p class="speaker">Sarah Hanson-Young</p><p>I move Greens amendment (1) on sheet 1188, as revised:</p><p class="italic">(1) Schedule 1, item 1, page 51 (after line 10), after subsection 52ZZS(1), insert:</p><p class="italic">(1A) Without limiting subsection (1), the review must consider and report on:</p><p class="italic">(a) the state of public interest journalism in Australia, including the numbers of journalists working in Australia; and</p><p class="italic">(b) the impact of the operation of this Part on small, independent and start-up news businesses (whether or not those businesses are registered news businesses).</p><p>This amendment asks, specifically, for the reference to small, regional and independent publications to be considered, and the impacts of this code on them, in the 12-month review. We did cover quite a bit of this earlier today. I understand the government intends that to be the case. But I think it's important to ensure that there is a discussion in this chamber, which is why I previously circulated this amendment, and I would like the government to consider it.</p> <p class="speaker">Louise Pratt</p><p>We appreciate the sentiment in this amendment. It is, clearly, in the public interest that public interest journalism be assessed as part of the review. However, I think the government should be able to make an undertaking, in that regard, without biasing the other issues that might also emerge in the time of the implementation of this legislation. We would expect, for example, the work of the Public Interest Journalism Initiative, PIJR, and the Australian news mapping project—these are all important considerations. However, we need to address a context in which the department has failed to produce basic information about newspaper coverage in Australia, particularly given the department's role in relation to the Regional and Small Publishers Innovation Fund. That was announced back in 2017 as well as the Public Interest News Gathering program announced in 2020. So there are a wide range of issues that need to be researched and assessed in terms of the balance of this kind of review. We're very happy to emphasise the needs of small and independent journalists and the Public Interest Journalism Initiative et cetera, but this inquiry and review has to address the needs of a much greater diversity of stakeholders.</p> <p class="speaker">Jane Hume</p><p>The government will be opposing this amendment. The review contained in the current legislation is broader in scope than that proposed in the amendment.</p> <p class="speaker">Glenn Sterle</p><p>The question is that Greens amendment (1) on sheet 1188 revised be agreed to.</p><p>Question negatived.</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>-
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