Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Pratt for putting Labor's position on the record. I am disappointed that, despite the massive amount of concern and questioning in the chamber today in relation to this, they won't support this amendment, notwithstanding the advice from the government. But let's be honest about what's going on here: the Treasurer has struck a deal with Mark Zuckerberg. They don't want to amend it on the floor. Governments don't like that. However, the precise role of this chamber is to improve legislation to make sure that it doesn't have unintended consequences. And our concern remains that small, medium and regional players will get left out in the cold. If the minister doesn't want that to happen, notwithstanding the success of this amendment, be very sure that week after week after week we are going to be keeping a very watchful eye on this. We are going to make sure that for every media organisation in this country who is not able to get a fair hearing with these tech titans the minister sorts it out. If he wants the discretion in relation to this, if this government wants to make sure that the power is in the Treasurer's hands, it will be on the Treasurer's head if anybody misses out. And we will expect answers in this place over and over again as to who has been screwed over by Facebook or Google—until you understand that it is your job to look after all players, not just the big monopolies, not just the Murdoch press, not just the Nine News empire. In this country, media diversity is at a crisis point because of not just the power that these big tech giants have but the concentration of media ownership across the various different platforms. I don't think it would have been too much for the Labor Party, or indeed the government themselves, to send a very clear message to Facebook and to Google today that we, the parliament of Australia, expect them to understand that small, medium and regional media in this country are essential, are absolutely fundamental to the sustainability of the news industry in this country. So we will be holding your feet to the fire, Minister, and the Treasurer's, in relation to this issue going forward. And we expect, in the review in 12 months time, transparency and honesty about how this has impacted on the various different players. If deals are done with only the friends of this government, those in the media who are their mates, and not with the small and regional publishers, it will be quite clear that this government has been duped. So here is an opportunity to fix it. If you're not going to take it, expect a fight in the months to come.