Bill to bail out NZ media not dead, minister makes clear

Tuesday, 28 May 2024

The Government is still considering a new law that media firms are hoping will help secure their financial future, despite a select committee recommending it should not proceed, Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith says.

Goldsmith said there had been “some confusion” among government members of Parliament’s Economic Development, Science and Innovation select committee, which released its report on the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill on Tuesday.

The bill, originally introduced by Labour, would require internet giants including Google and Meta reach licensing deals with publishers for local news shared through their platforms, on terms that could ultimately be set by compulsory arbitration.

The select committee recommended that the bill in its current form should not be passed after a four-way split between its members on whether or how to take it forward, though only the ACT Party — whose list MP Parmjeet Parmar chairs the committee — came out explicitly in favour of killing it off.

Goldsmith said the Government had not made a decision on the law change.

The issues involved were complex and the Government would not be rushed, he said.

“Frankly, there was some confusion on our side,” he said of committee’s deliberations on the bill. “We're still considering it and it's still an option.”

Goldsmith declined to detail the confusion, but said government members of the select committee had sought an extension to the committee’s consideration of the bill which was not agreed to.

“We're focused on ensuring that we have a good strong ‘fourth estate’ in this country and we're also focused on ensuring that we can still continue to have access to our stories and see our stories in the media,” he said.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said “the people who are producing media content are not the people who are benefiting from the revenue that content is generating”.

That meant there was “absolutely a role for government to intervene”, he said.

The Green Party recommended beefing up the obligations the bill would impose on internet firms to recognise they derived a financial benefit from being able to use news stories to train artificial intelligence tools.

Commenting before Goldsmith’s clarification, Andrew Holden, a spokesperson for the News Publishers Association, whose members include major media firms including Stuff Ltd, said it was disappointed the select committee had failed to reach a consensus.

The bill had overwhelming support from media companies and was “a necessary first step” to provide greater financial stability for journalism, he said.

As it stands, the bill would mean the Broadcasting Standards Authority, acting as an arbiter, could ultimately decide how much internet firms should pay media businesses.

Goldsmith said whether the Commerce Commission should instead take on that backstop role was “one of the many issues that could be considered”.