Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

The News organisation, because of its size, would not be eligible under the innovation fund. Regarding the other organisations that you mentioned, I'm not aware of the individual ownership arrangements or structure of each of those organisations, so my advice to all organisations is that they look at the criteria of the fund to determine for themselves if they're eligible to make an application.

I should emphasise that just because an organisation is eligible to make an application doesn't mean that it will necessary receive funding, because there is a process to assess applications. But we were very conscious of the need to focus this support on organisations which are based within Australia and are Australian owned. As you would be aware, we do have a number of tests: a primary purpose test around the journalism that they undertake; an Australian residence test, to demonstrate that the organisation is incorporated in Australia; an independence test, to demonstrate that they are not associated with, for example, a union, a political party or an NGO; and a control test, to demonstrate that they are not controlled by an entity which isn't managed by Australians.