SYDNEY: Controversial changes to Australia’s media laws passed the upper house Thursday, paving the way for a significant concentration of ownership, in a move welcomed by the industry.
Under legislation introduced in the 1980s to protect diversity, media companies are blocked from owning television, radio and newspaper assets in the same city, while metropolitan and regional broadcasters are barred from merging.
Major players in the market have long pressed for change, arguing the rules are outdated and do not account for digital media platforms and new publishers like Google and Facebook and video streaming giants such as Netflix.
“These changes bring Australia’s outdated media laws into the 21st century,” Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in a statement late Thursday after the upper house Senate passed the bill.
“They now finally recognize the enormous disruption that has been caused by the Internet. Australian media companies will now be better placed to compete with the big online media companies from overseas.”
Canberra unveiled plans for a revamp 18 months ago and a final deal was struck in the Senate, where the government needs the support of independents, including the right-wing One Nation party, to pass new laws.
The legislation is expected to be passed by the lower House of Representatives, where the government has a one-seat majority, when parliament resumes in mid-October.
Seven West Media — which owns broadcaster Channel Seven, magazines and The West Australian newspaper — welcomed the reforms, saying they would provide a “better future for local news and Australian stories.”
“These historic changes will give Australian media companies a real opportunity to compete with unregulated global players,” Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes said in a statement to national broadcaster ABC.
Under the changes, a company would be allowed to own a TV station, newspaper and radio station in a single market.
The “reach rule,” which prevented a single TV broadcaster from reaching more than 75 percent of the population, would be repealed.
The opposition Labor party and the Greens were against the “two out of three” rule being scrapped, arguing it will lead to a higher concentration of media ownership, notably in the hands of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
To reach agreement with the independents, the government had to make concessions, including establishing a Aus$60.4 million ($48 million) fund for regional and small publishers and more training for journalists.
New laws would also be introduced later this year to set up a public register of foreign-owned media assets and increase the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s focus on regional and rural issues.
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon, whose support was crucial, earlier said he had also secured a deal for an inquiry into the impact of platforms like Google and Facebook, which he said were making billions in advertising revenue in Australia, but paying little tax.
“It will be a world-first inquiry into the power of Google and Facebook and other social media platforms, the impact on the media, issues of copyright and market domination, how do we level the playing field for media organizations?,” said Xenophon.
No details about the inquiry were released by the government.
Like other international media organizations, those in Australia have suffered from declining advertising revenues and circulation, with many slashing staff levels and costs.
Major shake-up for Australian media
Major shake-up for Australian media
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday his country has no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China. He was responding to US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with a trade deal with Beijing.
Carney said his recent agreement with China merely cuts tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with tariffs.
Trump claims otherwise, posting that “China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada. So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone! President DJT”
The prime minister said under the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico there are commitments not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification.
“We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy,” Carney said. “What we have done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years.”
In 2024, Canada mirrored the United States by putting a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles from Beijing and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. China had responded by imposing 100 percent import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25 percent on pork and seafood.
Breaking with the United States this month during a visit to China, Carney cut its 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on those Canadian products.
Carney has said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1 percent, growing to about 70,000 over five years. He noted there was no cap before 2024. He also has said the initial cap on Chinese EV imports was about 3 percent of the 1.8 million vehicles sold in Canada annually and that, in exchange, China is expected to begin investing in the Canadian auto industry within three years.
Trump posted a video Sunday in which the chief executive of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association warns there will be no Canadian auto industry without US access, while noting the Canadian market alone is too small to justify large scale manufacturing from China.
“A MUST WATCH. Canada is systematically destroying itself. The China deal is a disaster for them. Will go down as one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history. All their businesses are moving to the USA. I want to see Canada SURVIVE AND THRIVE! President DJT,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump’s post on Saturday said that if Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”
“We can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We have a , but based off — based on that, which is going to be renegotiated this summer, and I’m not sure what Prime Minister Carney is doing here, other than trying to virtue-signal to his globalist friends at Davos.”
Trump’s threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the Republican president’s push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance.
Carney has emerged as a leader of a movement for countries to find ways to link up and counter the US under Trump. Speaking in Davos before Trump, Carney said, “Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu” and he warned about coercion by great powers — without mentioning Trump’s name. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the World Economic Forum.
Trump’s push to acquire Greenland has come after he has repeatedly needled Canada over its sovereignty and suggested it also be absorbed into the United States as a 51st state. He posted an altered image on social media this week showing a map of the United States that included Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.
