Tech companies’ White House complaint on Australian media laws
BIG TECH + BIG PHARMA VS AUSTRALIA
As Treasurer Jim Chalmers puts the final touches on his budget amid global economic uncertainty, the Albanese government is facing yet more pressure from American businesses with the ear of Donald Trump.
Yesterday we mentioned how American medical giants are taking aim at the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), urging the US president to impose punitive tariffs on Australia when his latest round of taxes kicks in at the start of next month.
Well, now it’s the turn of the tech companies to try and persuade Trump to act against Australia. Guardian Australia reports Apple, Meta, X, Google and Amazon have filed a formal complaint urging the White House to target “coercive and discriminatory” Australian media laws.
The site highlights trade policy manager of the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) Amir Nasr has called the News Media Bargaining Incentive one of the “key examples” of discriminatory taxation of digital products and services.
“Australia’s extraction and redistribution of revenue from US digital suppliers to local news businesses is reported to have cost US firms US$140 million annually,” he said. “Currently, the two companies targeted by the law pay A$250 million annually through deals that were coerced through the threat of this law. However, with the threat of the new ‘incentive’ tax from the Australian government (rate yet to be determined), this cost is likely to significantly increase.”
The Nine papers report the CCIA also complained Australia was hurting American streaming platforms by making them pay for local content.
The News Bargaining Incentive announced by the Albanese government aims to fill the gap left by the News Media Bargaining Code, which Meta has pulled out of, refusing to keep paying for content. Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said in response to the CCIA: “We don’t impose discriminatory laws — everything we’ve proposed in the digital space applies irrespective of the country in which the business operates.”
While tech companies try and get out of the proposed levy, The Australian reports the government is increasingly resigned to the Trump administration slapping tariffs on more Australian products next month.
“I think they’re hell-bent on proceeding with this,” a senior government MP is quoted as saying. “And I think this is what (Trump) says it is, which is something designed to raise revenue — it’s as simple as that. There isn’t a hidden agenda here. He’s obviously prepared to sustain some pain for what he thinks is long-term gain.”
Yesterday, in response to the pressure from the US pharmaceutical companies, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would advocate for Australia’s national interests, “not the interests of big pharma”, declaring: “Our PBS is not for sale.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said during an address to the Lowy Institute he would “stand up and defend the PBS … against any attempt to undermine its integrity, including by major pharmaceutical companies”. He added: “We will work with our most important ally, the US, but we will fight against any big drug company imposing tariffs on our PBS.”
Dutton’s address yesterday got plenty of coverage overnight. The ABC highlights many of the main moments, including his claim he would travel to Washington DC to meet Trump on his first overseas trip, if elected in May. Dutton also claimed he could handle Trump more effectively than Albanese, stating: “There is much we have in common to take forward — deregulation, civil nuclear power and most importantly defence — not just AUKUS pillar one but pillar two as well.”
The broadcaster reports the Coalition leader “fiercely criticised the government’s handling of ties with Israel and China and the prime minister’s openness to sending peacekeepers to Ukraine”.
On the theme of providing support to allies, Guardian Australia reports the Albanese government is consulting with Pacific nations to assess the consequences of the freeze on foreign aid by the Trump administration. The site says the government is looking ahead of Tuesday’s budget at what additional support it could provide.
WOOLWORTHS, COLES DOMINATION
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) inquiry into the supermarket sector has also dominated headlines overnight, with many sites still leading with it this morning.
The AFR reports the competition regulator found Woolworths and Coles are among the most profitable supermarket retailers on the planet but conceded not much can be done about their market dominance.
The paper states the ACCC recommended the government “force the supermarket giants to publish their prices online and provide suppliers with detailed information about price and sales forecasts, and modify zoning and planning laws so smaller rivals can expand more quickly”.
The ABC highlights the inquiry found both supermarkets increased their earnings margins in recent years but “stopped short of concluding that grocery prices were ‘excessive’, and did not declare that the two major players in the sector have a duopoly”.
The Nine papers quote the report, released today, as saying: “Coles’ and Woolworths’ market shares are increasing and they face no rivals of comparable scope and scale. In an oligopolistic market structure such as this, they have little incentive to beat each other on price.”
The competition watchdog warned the supermarkets had failed to pass on the full benefit of cost savings during the cost of living crisis.
That crisis will be front and centre of things next week when Parliament returns (remember when everyone was convinced this term was all done and dusted at the end of the last sitting fortnight?). We’ve got the budget, Dutton’s response to the budget, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest interest rate decision and perhaps the election being called, all happening over the next few days. Oh, and Trump’s tariffs on April 2. It’s going to be a ride.
While Chalmers prepares his budget, Dutton his reply and Albanese his election date, one poll already concluded is the Western Australia election, which was held at the start of the month. The ABC’s Antony Green has given his update on the state of things in WA overnight, saying the current scores of the doors are: Labor 44, Liberals six, and Nationals five, with four seats still in doubt.
Yesterday Libby Mettam announced she would not seek reelection as leader of the WA Liberals in the wake of the huge defeat on March 8. In the least surprising news ever, incoming Churchlands MP Basil Zempilas has thrown his hat into the ring, the ABC confirms.
In global news, an Australian delegation has joined high-level talks in London to discuss boosting military aid and security to Ukraine. EU leaders have also met in Belgium to discuss the situation. Meanwhile, the ABC reports US and Russian delegations are due to meet in Saudi Arabia on Monday to continue peace talks.
The national broadcaster also reports Palestinian health authorities have said at least 91 people have been killed in the third day of Israeli air strikes across Gaza. The New York Times says Hamas has fired its first barrage of rockets into Israeli territory in months “as Israeli troops expanded ground raids in northern Gaza in what looked increasingly like a slide back into full-scale war”.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
With “tariffs” the buzzword of 2025, you’d think I might spare us from talking about them in the Lighter Note, but bear with me.
A couple in Binalong, New South Wales, have said they were so “appalled” by the treatment Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy received when he visited the White House last month they decided to take action, the ABC reports.
“I was disgusted because here’s this man, coming for help and he’s belittled. It’s schoolyard bullying and we don’t accept that anywhere,” Jan Giles said. “You don’t treat anyone like that, let alone a head of state and for it to be on the world stage, [it’s] absolutely unbelievable.”
And so Jan and Adrian Sykes decided to impose “tariffs” of their own on American-owned and made produce sold in their cafe, with the proceedings being used to support aid to Ukraine.
“With Coca-Cola products, we’ve put a $1 tariff on it … Jim Beam and Cola, we’ve put $2 on it,” Sykes said.
The couple say they’ve had no complaints from customers.
Say What?
It was a phrase that shouldn’t have been used, and no offence was intended from Mr Dutton.
Peter Dutton’s spokesperson
The leader of the opposition was criticised for calling Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s response to the Chinese navy conducting live-fire drills in Australian waters “the weakest, most limp-wrist response you could see from a leader”.
CRIKEY RECAP
A letter from its co-chairs, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and trade unionist Sharan Burrow, was sent to the AFMRC email list, urging recipients to donate to the institute, while the think tank will also take carriage of the AFMRC’s contact list.
Turnbull, speaking to Crikey, confirmed the organisation’s original goal of a royal commission into the Murdoch media was dead.
“Unfortunately, it’s pretty clear that the original goal of getting a royal commission, which would be a very valuable exercise, is not going to be achieved because both of the big parties are resolutely opposed to it,” Turnbull said. “So no sign of that changing.”
With both sides now committed to higher defence spending, the question is whether that additional spending will actually enable us to stand on our own two feet strategically — or further undermine our sovereignty.
The Coalition has been saying it will increase defence spending for some time — although it won’t commit to a specific target. Labor has committed to a long-term increase to 2.33% of GDP by 2034, but is now flagging that Tuesday’s budget will see some additional spending “brought forward”. There’s a weird contradiction between these positions and what the major parties are saying about our relationship with the United States — that even under Trump, the US is a reliable ally. If it is a reliable ally, we now seem in an awful hurry to improve our defence self-reliance.
Of course, the US is no longer a reliable ally. The United States is no longer reliable on anything. At best, it is entirely indifferent to Australia’s interests except insofar as they serve American interests. At worst, it is an economic enemy of Australia that is planning to dictate what our domestic policies should be via threats of tariffs and interference in our politics (to the extent that News Corp isn’t already a US interference in Australian politics).
Millions of Australians have been targeted with anti-Peter Dutton digital advertisements over the past few weeks, paid for by a new climate-focused “news organisation”.
The organisation has spent more on its ads than was spent on the Australian Labor Party’s accounts in February or on the Liberal Party of Australia’s accounts in the past month. Its posts call the opposition leader a liar, a Trump acolyte and accuse him of not caring about veterans.
The group is Hothouse Magazine, a self-described news organisation run by a “collection of politically active creatives, writers, artists and educators to create engaging and factual political advertising”.
As the Coalition cries foul about news outlets funded by donations from Climate 200 backers, Hothouse Magazine has splashed $120,000 on Meta political ads in the past month alone. It’s at the crest of a wave of climate-focused groups that are becoming some of the biggest spenders on online political advertising in the lead-up to the federal election.
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Tesla backer says Musk must reduce Trump work, as 46,000 Cybertrucks recalled (The Guardian)
EU holds fire on US spirits in tit-for-tat trade war (euronews)
Apple streaming losses top $1bn a year (The Information) ($)
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon cleared in police investigation into SNP’s finances (Sky News)
Obituary: Eddie Jordan, the flamboyant deal-maker of Formula 1 (BBC)
THE COMMENTARIAT
Dutton says he could handle Donald Trump, but can any Australian PM? — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): As many have observed, Donald Trump’s long shadow hangs over our election, at a time of multiple other uncertainties. Australia, like other countries, has already felt the brunt of the president’s tariffs policy, and the government is bracing for what may be worse to come with the next round of Trump announcements in early April.
So what face would a Peter Dutton government present to the world? And how would he handle Trump?
On Thursday at the Lowy Institute, the opposition leader brought his international policies together. He presented a mix of bipartisanship and differences with the government. Some of the latter weren’t so much fundamental disagreements as claims Labor had failed and the Coalition would be more competent or effective.
The most frustrating part of Dutton’s speech and answers to questions was the same old problem. For crucial details, particularly on defence spending but also on the future of foreign aid under the Coalition, we were told we’d have to wait for announcements that always seem over the horizon.
Parties unite against US drug makers, a referendum flops and Plibersek won’t help Labor much in Tasmania — Brett Worthington (ABC): So eager was shadow health minister Anne Ruston to match Labor’s pledge to cap medications on the pharmaceutical benefit scheme (PBS) at $25 that her commitment came even before the government’s policy was public.
Labor released its policy earlier on Wednesday under a strict embargo for 10.30pm that night. Had the government wanted to surprise the Coalition, it was bitterly disappointed.
Landing in emails at 8.42pm was a press release from Senator Ruston, not under embargo, committing the Coalition to a policy that looked a whole lot like Labor’s yet-to-be-announced commitment. Deidre Chambers!
Labor has made health a central plank of its reelection bid, regularly framing measures as a pitch to cut household costs. The scenes that played out on Wednesday were much like those when Labor unveiled an $8.5 billion bulk billing policy and half a billion in funding for women’s health.
