Goldsmith admits Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill shelved because of Trump

Wednesday, 10 December 2025

Minister of Media and Communications Paul Goldsmith is now candid the Government backed down on media reforms in the face of US opposition.

Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith has made clear that a law change designed to assist the media was shelved because of concerns over how US President Donald Trump might respond.

The Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill has not been formally withdrawn but has been in limbo since Goldsmith originally announced his support for the legislation in July last year.

Originally drafted by the former Labour government, the law change was designed to strong-arm large internet search and social media companies, including Google and Meta, into helping fund the media through licensing deals, in recognition of the benefits they gained from media content being available via their platforms.

It had been widely assumed Trump’s election was the reason for the legislative retreat, but Goldsmith had not previously confirmed that.

Responding to questions from his Labour Party counterpart Reuben Davidson in Parliament on the long hold-up, Goldsmith said “as is highly obvious to everybody, circumstances changed somewhat at the end of 2024 with the US presidency changes, and a more cautious approach was adopted”.

Reforms that would have required streaming services such as Netflix to support local content also appear to have fallen by the wayside.

The Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill is not the only piece of legislation that is suspected of being scuppered as a result of the wishes of the US government, rather than those of New Zealand’s elected representatives.

Revenue Minister Simon Watts formally withdrew the Digital Services Tax Bill from the legislative programme in May, after threats from Trump about other countries enacting or progressing similar legislation.

It would have introduced a 3% tax on the local sales of large technology multinationals, to reflect concerns they were not shouldering their fair share of tax through the existing taxes on their local profits.

Watts said at the time that the bill was dropped because the Government was encouraged by progress the OECD was making developing a multilateral solution to the issues the law change was designed to address. However, that work has not come to fruition.

The Ministry of Culture and Heritage separately consulted in February on whether major streaming television services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime should be obliged to commission or fund a set proportion of local content, as is required in some overseas jurisdictions in a practice also repeatedly targeted by Trump.

Work on the proposal — which originally got under way before Trump’s election — was overseen by Goldsmith, who made supportive comments when the ministry’s discussion paper was released. But there is no information it has since progressed.

Davidson was critical of Goldsmith’s lack of additional support for the media. Legislative action has so far been limited to a lifting of the ban on television and radio advertising on Sunday mornings and public holidays.

“You do need to have consideration of the wider global context, but at the same time, he can’t afford to be a one trick pony,” Davidson said.

“If he’s not able to progress something, or chooses not to progress a specific piece of legislation, what else has he got? And it appears he has nothing.”