Eight news deals can wipe out a platform's news charge
This law sets the rules for the News Bargaining Incentive. Platforms here means big social media and search sites. Some have millions of Australian users and earn over $250 million from local ads. They must pay a charge. They can cut it to nothing with deals with at least eight news groups.
Official name: News Media Bargaining (Administration) Bill 2026
- It covers social media with 5 million or more Australian users a month. It covers search engines with 10 million or more.
- The company group must also earn over $250 million a year from Australian online ads on those services.
- The charge is 2.5 per cent of that ad money. A second bill sets that rate.
- Deals with at least eight separate news groups can shrink the charge. Each dollar spent on a deal counts as $1.50 or $2.
- It applies from the 2025 to 2026 money year. The tax office runs it.
Who it affects
- Big social media and search companies: They must work out if they are caught, send in a form, and pay the charge or prove their news deals.
- Australian news outlets: Platforms now have a money reason to sign deals with them. Deals with smaller outlets get extra credit.
- The Australian Taxation Office: The head of the tax office runs the charge, sends the bills and can stop tricks to dodge it.
- Messaging, gaming, health, education and AI chatbot services: These are left out of the charge.
Online ads drained newsroom money
Ads have moved online. The government says this has hurt how news outlets make money. It says that has hurt the good journalism that relies on it. News also brings people to social media and search services. That helps those platforms earn money.
In 2021 Australia brought in the News Media Bargaining Code. It was meant to push big platforms to make deals with news outlets. But a platform could avoid the code by not carrying news. The Parliamentary Library works for all MPs and takes no side. It says Meta, which owns Facebook, chose not to renew deals. They were worth about $70 million a year.
On 12 December 2024 the government announced a new plan. This law sets it up. The government's notes on the bill call it the News Media Incentive. The government has also called it the News Bargaining Incentive. It applies whether or not a platform carries news.
This bill is one of five. It holds the main rules. A second bill, the News Media Bargaining Charge Bill, sets the rate at 2.5 per cent. A third bill changes tax law so the tax office can collect it. Two more bills send the money to newsrooms.
Services that are caught
A social media service is one where a big purpose is letting people interact online. Users must be able to link up with each other and post things.
Some services are left out. These include services mainly for messages, email or calls. They also include online games, product reviews, education and health. Services mainly for schools talking to families, or doctors talking to patients, are also out.
A search service is a search engine that searches the whole internet. Some sites only search their own content. Job sites, price comparison sites, places to stay and research databases are like this. They are not included.
Some AI services mainly use large language models. These are the kind of AI that writes text answers. They are not search services under this law. A chatbot on its own that answers from its own model is out. A search engine that uses AI to sum up its search results is still in.
A social media service counts if it has at least 5 million Australian users a month on average. For a search service the bar is 10 million. A user counts if they use it from Australia at least once in a month.
Who has to pay
The charge falls on the top company in a group. That is the one no other company controls. All the companies it controls form its group.
The top company must pay if its group runs a social media or search service that counts. The group's Australian online ad money from those services must also be over $250 million for the year.
Only money from ads on those services counts. It must come from Australian sales or things the group owns in Australia. The money is worked out using normal accounting rules. So companies can use their own financial reports.
Every company in the group shares the bill. So the tax office can chase any of them. A company might buy or sell a service partway through the year. Then special rules decide who pays for it.
Working out the charge
The rate is 2.5 per cent of the group's Australian online ad money. The figure used comes from two years earlier. For the 2026 to 2027 year, the charge is based on money from 2024 to 2025.
The government says this tells platforms ahead of time how much to spend on news deals to wipe out the charge.
Say a platform earns $1 billion a year from Australian ads on its social media service. Its charge would be $25 million, unless it does enough news deals.
News deals cut the charge
A platform can shrink its charge by spending money on Australian news. To get any cut at all, it must have new deals with at least eight separate news groups that year. With seven or fewer, it gets no cut and pays the full charge.
The money must go to a registered news business. It must be for making news, or for putting its news online. It could be a share of ad money, money for newsroom gear, or wages for trainee and junior journalists. The deal must be at arm's length. That means the news group cannot be linked to the platform.
Each dollar spent is boosted. It counts as $1.50 for a big news group. It counts as $2 for a news group made up only of small or medium businesses. The government says the bigger boost helps smaller outlets. They have less money and less power to bargain.
No single news group can cover more than a quarter of the charge. This stops a platform paying off its whole bill with one big deal. Spare credit can be kept for later years, as long as the eight-group test was met.
Some deals were settled by an arbitrator under the 2021 code. An arbitrator is an independent person who decides when the two sides cannot agree. Money paid under those deals also counts.
What counts as news
Deals must be for news that counts. That is news that reports or explains things Australians care about, or helps public debate. It can also be news that covers local, country or national events. Sports results and entertainment news can count.
Nature films, live sport broadcasts, sport panel shows, drama, reality TV, product reviews and research journals do not count.
Deals made before the law
The charge reaches back to the 2025 to 2026 money year. The government says it gave warning when it announced the plan in December 2024.
Some deals count in the money years up to when the law was signed. For those, a wider range of spending counts. It can include help that is not cash. It can include deals with news outlets that are not registered. Spending on ads or marketing can count too, up to 40 per cent of each deal.
Stopping tricks to avoid it
The law has rules against dodging the charge. They apply when a company sets up a deal mainly to lower its charge or boost its credit.
The head of the tax office can look at how and when the scheme was set up, and what it does. Then the head of the tax office can declare the true charge or credit.
Paying and reporting rules
A top company that owes the charge must send a form to the tax office. It has six months after the money year ends. It must do this even if its charge is cut to nothing. An Australian company in the group should send it in. The charge is due 21 days after the tax office sends its bill. Interest is added to late payments.
A company can object to a bill within 60 days. The charge cannot be taken off the company's income for tax. The tax office can share facts with the Communications Department. That helps it run the payments to newsrooms.
Amounts in foreign money are turned into Australian dollars. This uses accounting rules or Reserve Bank rates. The Minister can make extra rules. An independent review must start after three years. The public must be asked for views. Its report must go to Parliament.
Start date
Assistant Treasurer Daniel Mulino, a junior minister for money matters, brought in the bill on 13 August 2026. The House of Representatives, Parliament's main house, passed it on 19 August 2026. The Senate, Parliament's second house, passed it on 20 August 2026. The Parliamentary Library said the Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader Angus Taylor made a deal to pass it fast.
The Governor-General, who stands in for the King, signed it into law on 26 August 2026. It is Act number 77 of 2026, its official law number. It started the next day. The charge applies to the 2025 to 2026 money year and later years.
How they voted
| Vote | Result |
|---|---|
| Vote on a change House of Representatives, 19 August 2026 Labor 64 no, Independent 10 aye, Centre Alliance 1 aye, Greens 1 aye, Liberal 1 no | Noes won 65 to 12 |
| Vote to add a statement Senate, 20 August 2026 Labor 26 no, Greens 9 aye, One Nation 3 aye, Liberal 3 no, Independent 1 aye | Noes won 29 to 13 |
| Vote on a change Senate, 20 August 2026 Labor 25 no, Liberal 17 aye, Greens 9 no, One Nation 3 aye, Nationals 2 aye, LNP 1 aye, Independent 1 no | Noes won 35 to 23 |
| Vote on a change Senate, 20 August 2026 Labor 25 no, Greens 9 aye, Liberal 5 no, One Nation 3 no, Independent 1 aye, Nationals 1 no | Noes won 34 to 10 |
| Vote on a change Senate, 20 August 2026 Labor 26 aye, Greens 9 no, Liberal 4 aye, One Nation 3 aye, Independent 1 no | Ayes won 33 to 10 |
| Vote on a change Senate, 20 August 2026 Labor 26 no, Greens 9 aye, Liberal 4 no, One Nation 3 no, Independent 1 aye | Noes won 33 to 10 |
Its journey through Parliament
| 13 Aug 2026 | House of Representatives: Introduced and read a first time |
| 13 Aug 2026 | House of Representatives: Second reading moved |
| 18 Aug 2026 | House of Representatives: Second reading debate |
| 19 Aug 2026 | House of Representatives: Second reading agreed to |
| 19 Aug 2026 | House of Representatives: Consideration in detail debate |
| 19 Aug 2026 | House of Representatives: Third reading agreed to |
| 20 Aug 2026 | Senate: Introduced and read a first time |
| 20 Aug 2026 | Senate: Second reading moved |
| 20 Aug 2026 | Senate: Second reading debate |
| 20 Aug 2026 | Senate: Second reading agreed to |
| 20 Aug 2026 | Senate: Third reading agreed to |
| 20 Aug 2026 | : Finally passed both Houses |
| 26 Aug 2026 | : Assent Act no : 77 Year : 2026 |