Artificial intelligence platforms such as OpenAI should be covered by Australia’s proposed News Bargaining Incentive, local and community media outlets said in submissions to a 2025 government consultation, arguing that AI services influence news traffic even without significant advertising revenue. The US-based National Foreign Trade Council opposed the plan outright, warning that the measure would amount to a discriminatory digital services tax targeting American companies and potentially breach Australia’s trade commitments.
Artificial intelligence platforms such as OpenAI should be captured by Australia’s proposed tax system designed to push digital platforms into news deals, local and independent publishers have said. In a submission to a government consultation published recently, the Local and Independent News Association, or LINA, said that large language model services are increasingly shaping how Australians access news. LINA members include Australian outlets such as The Conversation, Crikey, The Mandarin, QNews and The Riverine Grazier.
“LINA does not support the proposal to automatically exclude those services which do not ‘generate significant digital advertising revenue,’ as this is likely to see relevant services fall outside the scope of the News Bargaining Incentive,” said the industry body.
The submission responds to the government’s 2025 consultation paper seeking feedback on a proposed News Bargaining Incentive, which would impose a tax-like charge on major digital platforms unless they enter into or renew commercial deals with Australian news outlets (see here).
Currently, the program is likely to capture tech giants including Meta Platforms, Google and TikTok.
While services such as OpenAI, which operates the chatbot ChatGPT, do not rely heavily on digital advertising, publishers argue they still influence audience traffic and revenue flows.
“By contrast, Pinterest is primarily an advertising-based platform yet is not a place where users access, share or discuss news. The Incentive must be sufficiently broad to accommodate both changes in technology and in audience behaviors while not creating a burden for platforms that would be reasonably considered out of scope,” LINA said. Its members also include Business News Australia, The Post, Sydney Times and The Wire.
The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, or CBAA, which represents more than 300 not-for-profit community broadcasters across the country, also supported LINA’s submission and urged the government to ensure AI companies are covered under the proposed program.
“2025 has seen the emergence of AI as a key threat to news… The threats to the Australian news sector from AI … will become more apparent. To future-proof the [proposed program], AI companies should be included,” said CBAA.
The industry body recommended that any such legislation should include AI companies alongside already covered digital platforms or a mechanism to review how these companies can be included as soon as practicable to address their growing impact on the sustainability of Australian news.
The two industry bodies also raised concerns about eligibility rules carried over from the original News Media Bargaining Code, including the A$150,000 ($105,900) revenue threshold for news businesses. Both LINA and the CBAA argued that the income test excludes many small and local publishers that produce public interest journalism but operate on modest budgets.
The groups warned that retaining the same threshold under the new incentive would entrench larger incumbents while shutting out emerging and hyperlocal outlets.
“It is important that the news bargaining incentive not have anticompetitive outcomes by becoming a barrier to entry that prevents the new businesses entering the market, particularly in news deserts,” LINA’s submission said.
The consultation paper was released in November 2025, almost a year after the government announced that it would create a new tax-offset mechanism to encourage the tech giants to come to the bargaining table (see here).
That December 2024 announcement followed Meta’s plans not to renew the three-year deals it struck with publishers in 2021 under Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code (see here).
— US trade group opposition —
While the CBAA and LINA broadly supported the introduction of the news bargaining incentive, the US-based National Foreign Trade Council, or NFTC, opposed the proposal outright.
The NFTC represents hundreds of major corporations, including Meta, Qualcomm, Deloitte & Touche and Ford Motor Co. The industry association used its submission to argue that the proposed program amounts to a discriminatory digital services tax.
“While framed as an incentive, the proposal constitutes a discriminatory retroactive digital services tax that intentionally targets a narrow group of predominantly American companies,” said the NFTC.
“NFTC urges the Australian Government not to move forward with this policy proposal and to pursue alternate pathways to address local news media and journalistic funding shortfalls that do not target American digital service providers,” it added.
The submission also said the proposal appears inconsistent with Australia’s international trade commitments, including obligations under the Australia–United States Free Trade Agreement.
The NFTC also said that there is a significant risk that the news bargaining incentive would primarily benefit large, incumbent Australian media groups, “further entrenching their market position while disadvantaging independent, regional, and emerging publishers.”
“Australia should abandon this proposal and pursue alternative approaches that address the structural challenges facing journalism without imposing punitive taxes on a narrow set of companies or distorting commercial markets,” the NFTC submission said.
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