🌅 Taxing Tech to Save Journalism

Author

Sunrise Stat
May 19, 2026

2.25% - The proposed tax on local revenue Australia wants to put on major tech companies that don’t strike content agreements with newsrooms.

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SOURCE
WHAT TO KNOW

  • The Australian government has released a draft of its proposed News Bargaining Incentive, outlining its plan to get major tech companies to fund newsrooms and pay for the content shared on their platforms. Under the legislation, tech companies with local revenue exceeding $180 million—thereby capturing Meta, Google, and TikTok—will face a 2.25% tax on their Australian revenue unless they strike agreements with local news publishers. The tax can drop to as low as 1.5% if companies strike enough deals, with as few as four agreements being sufficient.

WHY IT MATTERS

  • Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the government’s goal is to address market imbalances and place a monetary value on journalism, acknowledging that “investment in journalism is critical to a healthy democracy.” The government expects the law to generate around $150 million each year, which will be distributed among news organizations based on the number of journalists each outlet employs.

CONNECT THE DOTS

  • The legislation updates Australia’s novel News Media Bargaining Code (enacted in 2021), under which designated tech companies were required to negotiate deals with media outlets. Experts describe the News Media Bargaining Code as a success, seeing deals struck that were worth around $150 million per year, generating more than $715 million over five years for Australian media companies.