What Happened
Digital Publisher Alliance chair Tim Duggan addressed the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, calling on the Australian government to hold firm against artificial intelligence companies seeking to weaken the nation's copyright laws.
Duggan argued that AI company bosses should not be granted access to parliament house unless they first compensate Australian creators whose work has been used to train their systems. "We should not be welcoming any (AI) CEOs into parliament house without first demanding that they compensate the Australians whose work they have stolen," he said.
He also called for a moratorium on government advertising with foreign tech giants, and for tax offsets to help local news providers stay commercially viable.
Why It Matters
Australia's media industry is under mounting pressure. Job cuts at Southern Cross Media and Punkee are recent examples of a broader pattern. While Meta and Google have dominated debates about online news consumption for years, Duggan said AI companies now represent a significant additional threat because they are using news content without paying for it.
"We need strong assurances from the government that Australia's perfectly robust and established system of copyright will not be sacrificed at the alter of a few false gods of artificial intelligence," Duggan said.
The federal government announced plans for a News Bargaining Incentive scheme two months ago, designed to collect funds from digital platforms and direct them to media outlets. Duggan acknowledged the announcement but said the industry remained at risk from three sources: big tech firms, government paralysis, and public trust.
Key Details
Duggan framed many of his proposals as practical and low-cost. "A lot of this is common sense and a lot of it doesn't cost additional funds," he said.
His core argument was about competitive fairness. "There's no reason why Australian media can't be very commercially successful and thriving," he said. "The point is around making sure that there's a level playing field so that we do have a chance of commercial success."
The moratorium on government advertising with foreign tech giants was presented as one concrete step the government could take without new legislation or significant expenditure.
Background and Context
The Digital Publisher Alliance represents Australian digital news publishers. Its intervention comes as AI companies, including major US-based firms, face growing scrutiny globally over their use of copyrighted material in training large language models.
Australia has an established copyright framework under the Copyright Act 1968, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has previously examined the bargaining power imbalance between news publishers and large digital platforms. The News Bargaining Incentive scheme follows the earlier News Media Bargaining Code, which compelled Google and Meta to negotiate commercial deals with Australian publishers.
Duggan's address signals that the alliance views AI companies as the next front in that same battle, one that the existing code does not yet cover.
What Comes Next
The federal government has not yet legislated the News Bargaining Incentive scheme. Duggan's address puts public pressure on ministers to move quickly and to extend any new framework to AI companies, not just the established platforms.
Whether parliament will adopt the alliance's harder line, including restricting access for AI executives who have not paid for Australian content, remains to be seen. The alliance's position is clear: compensation first, access second.