Labor’s weak, vacillating approach to digital policy setting on full display in new Committee report

Last week the Labor led Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society issued its interim report.

It offers yet more evidence about how hopelessly the Albanese Labor Government is flailing around in its approach to digital and internet policy making.

Let’s start with the big idea, which got a bit of media coverage: that Australia should have a single Digital Affairs Minister, charged with ‘overarching responsibility for the coordination of regulation to address the challenges and risks presented by digital platforms.’

There is a very obvious problem with the Albanese Labor Government proposing this idea: one of its first acts upon coming to government in 2022 was to abolish the Digital Economy portfolio which had operated for several years under the Morrison Coalition Government. 

Labor also chose to dump the goal set by the Morrison Government, that Australia would be one of the world’s top ten data and digital economies by 2030. 

In fact we know that Labor is actively hostile to many aspects of the digital economy. The gig economy uses digital technology to give Australians easy and efficient ways to both provide and receive services - but former Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke called the gig economy a ‘cancer.’

As for Labor’s handling of the former Morrison Government’s world leading News Media Bargaining Code, its approach has been rudderless and ineffectual. 

As the Committee’s interim report notes, the Code is estimated to have secured some $200 million of funding from Meta (parent of Facebook) and Alphabet (parent of Google) for Australian news media businesses.  This reflects the clear direction and political purpose shown by the Morrison Government, with the Prime Minister, Treasurer and Communications Minister working closely together to develop the Code and get it passed through the Parliament.

As a result of our work, there were more journalists hired and more public interest journalism delivered. 

By contrast, under the Albanese Government, there has been no clear leadership. The Treasurer has expressly excluded himself from involvement and left this issue in the hands of the hapless Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones.

We have seen occasional bursts of aggressive rhetoric from the Prime Minister, Minister Jones and others, but no consistent plan to bring the social media giants to the table.

The government has been confused and disorganised on this issue - and the Committee’s interim report continues that confusion.

It notes that the Code has been successful in securing funding for news media businesses - but then criticises the Code and says it contains flaws. The report floats several ill-developed ideas - such as ‘alternative revenue mechanisms to supplement the Code’, a ‘short term transition fund’ and a ‘Digital Media Competency Fund.’

This is typical of Labor’s woolly thinking: lots of suggestions about how to spend money, but no practical ideas for how to match the success achieved by the Morrison Government in obtaining money from digital platforms which supported Australian news media businesses. 

Having been involved as Communications Minister in the successful work of the Morrison Government on this issue, I am most unimpressed by the vacillation and lack of direction shown by the Albanese Labor Government. We left them the tools to deal with this issue but they are singularly failing to use them. 

The Committee’s interim report is entirely consistent with the general uselessness of Labor on this issue.  It sends a further message to the digital platforms: Labor is weak and confused on this issue, they do not know what to do, and the platforms can safely ignore their ineffectual bleating and bloviating.