Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

The government's amendment to the bill requires the Treasurer to consider: whether there is significant market power imbalance between Australian news media and the digital platform and whether the digital platforms have made a significant contribution to the sustainability of the Australian news industry through agreements relating to news content. This means that the Treasurer will have regard to the deals that Facebook and Google have done with news media businesses, which will include agreements they have entered into with regional publishers who fall within the parameters of the code.

In addition to being able to reach direct deals with the digital platforms, the code provides an option for default offers to be made to publishers and an opportunity for smaller publishers to come together to collectively bargain. Facebook restoring news pages also helps small community news that operates solely within the Facebook environment or relies heavily on Facebook to disseminate news to local communities. I want to remind you that this code has not yet been passed into law, so I think that some of your questions are premature. There is a review that is taking place in 12 months time.