{"id":843044,"date":"2026-08-04T09:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T09:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/843044\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T09:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T09:12:14","slug":"trump-wants-fair-treatment-in-fight-over-labors-levy-on-tech-giants-to-pay-for-news-us-trade-group-warns-australian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/843044\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump wants \u2018fair treatment\u2019 in fight over Labor\u2019s levy on tech giants to pay for news, US trade group warns | Australian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

A major US trade body has rubbished the Albanese government\u2019s plan to make more big tech platforms pay for Australian journalism, issuing a veiled warning about how Donald Trump<\/a> may respond to the \u201cdeteriorating trend\u201d.<\/p>\n

The National Foreign Trade Council said it was \u201cdisappointed\u201d at the Australian government\u2019s move to expand its News Bargaining Incentive<\/a> (NBI) to take in Microsoft\u2019s LinkedIn, amid trade tensions between Washington and Canberra including newly increased tariffs on Australian goods<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But competition experts in Australia say the government has not gone far enough in helping support news outlets whose content is being exploited by platforms such as Facebook and Google, and that the exclusion of AI platforms was a major flaw.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope they move on the AI issue and give us that clarity,\u201d said the former ACCC chair Rod Sims.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to see a bit of urgency. The potential lack of ambition, and not every [media outlet] getting a deal, certainly worries me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed NBI<\/a>, which the Albanese government seeks to legislate in coming months, would require tech giants to compensate media outlets for the news on their platforms, either through making commercial deals or paying a higher levy.<\/p>\n

It initially included Google, TikTok and Meta; Monday\u2019s announcement that the NBI would include professional networking sites \u2013 previously carved out from the plan \u2013 and increase the cost charge but reduce the cost base, was hailed by Labor as a fairer model.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

But Tiffany Smith, the vice-president of global trade policy at the National Foreign Trade Council, criticised the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe remain disappointed that Australia continues to push forward with a news bargaining incentive that now covers an even broader spectrum of US companies,\u201d she told Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n

The NFTC is a major American trade lobby, with members including affected companies Meta, Microsoft and Google; other tech companies such as Amazon, Apple and Samsung; and major firms like BP, Coca-Cola, Ford, Toyota, Shell and Visa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump administration has made it clear that it is fully committed to the fair treatment of American companies abroad. We call on the Australian government to reconsider this measure, which adds to a broader deteriorating trend in the tax and investment climate in Australia,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

But Sims, a former boss of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and a supporter of the NBI, said the government wasn\u2019t doing enough to support news.<\/p>\n

Under the plan, big tech platforms would have to make at least six individual deals with news publishers \u2013 up from a previous four \u2013 to avoid paying the levy, set at a higher rate.<\/p>\n

The assistant treasurer, Daniel Mulino, who is leading the process, said on Monday that Australian media<\/a> would expect to receive \u201c$200 million to $250 million\u201d in total under the arrangements.<\/p>\n

Sims said he was pleased the NBI was progressing, and would scrap the carve out for professional networking sites, but said more money should be raised to support journalism \u2013 noting $250m was the figure raised under the former News Media Bargaining Code, legislated by the Coalition half a decade ago, and which only included Meta and Google.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | When needed<\/p>\n

Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n

Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sims said the government should be aiming higher than that, more in the realm of $300m plus, with more companies included and inflation added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lack of ambition, and simple arithmetic here,\u201d Sims said.<\/p>\n

News Corp\u2019s Australian chair, Michael Miller, claimed the government\u2019s changes \u201cgut the incentive for tech platforms to strike fair deals with Australian media\u201d, saying the rules \u201cneed strengthening, not softening\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn an already uneven playing field, getting this wrong won\u2019t just hurt Australian media. It will erode the quality and independence of news every Australian relies on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The changes were also criticised by the Coalition and Greens, making the NBI\u2019s pathway through parliament unclear when the legislation is introduced in coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Sims was critical that AI platforms deriving value from Australian news would not be captured \u2013 even those incorporated into NBI-exposed companies, such as Google\u2019s Gemini. He also worried that many outlets would miss out on benefit, with big tech companies only obliged to make six deals minimum.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just means not everybody will get a deal, in fact most won\u2019t \u2026 some outlets in public interest journalism won\u2019t get some. That\u2019s a real concern,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Another former ACCC chair, Allan Fels, said it was positive the government was making progress, but worried the scheme didn\u2019t go far enough to \u201cextract more from the platforms\u201d for Australian journalism.<\/p>\n

A Microsoft spokesperson said the company \u201cshares the Government\u2019s objective of promoting a sustainable Australian news ecosystem\u201d and said it would continue \u201cconstructive engagement with Government, publishers and industry stakeholders to support high-quality journalism, innovation and economic growth\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major US trade body has rubbished the Albanese government\u2019s plan to make more big tech platforms pay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":843045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-843044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=843044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=843044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=843044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=843044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}