SpeechDAMIEN SMITH (ACT): Madam Speaker thank you very much for the opportunity to speak on the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill. I rise on behalf of the ACT Party. It's my last speech in this current term and I'd like to thank all my colleagues in the House and Minister Webb my colleagues in the ACT Party and the members of the New Zealand public for the right and privilege to have served. I hope everyone has a great election.As New Zealand's only member of Parliament who is an anarcho-capitalist—believes in free minds and free markets—it's not going to surprise you that I've convinced our party to oppose this bill. Even though the Labour Government may feel ideologically this is suitable I'm going to give you some reasons why it's not. I admire their tenacity but we did kill the Radio New Zealand - TVNZ merger and now the objective is to kill this.This bill will die when the current Government is not re-elected in October but the standard practice of consultation with the industry has not really occurred in this space. It's the State again intervening in the market place to force one industry to subsidise another declining industry. Money this Government pumped into media via New Zealand On Air over the last three years since 2020 has led to suspicious motives and led to the public of New Zealand losing trust in this institution and also the institution of the fourth estate.The $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund (PIJF) was welcomed by media outlets which competed for the cash to fund jobs in journalism projects while it lasted but the strings came attached with the PIJF and that was one of the Government's downfalls. This bill is no better as the strings remain but only indirectly. The Government needs to stop thinking it has the right to gerrymander news media markets through its various conditions for funding.The Cabinet paper for this bill says that continued funding of public interest journalism 'increases risks around the perceived independence … and public trust in the media' ". Clearly the hope is that payments from the big tech titans will fill the void as the PIJF fund spending is done and dusted. With the Minister I always wonder what's in it for the Government and I looked on at the TVNZ and RNZ merger and its motives. This is a way of finding money for the media to replace millions of dollars of public interest journalism funding.Now Google has done deals with over 50 local large- and small-scale news media outlets. The sums involved are confidential commercial secrets as they should be. This arbitration process does not add any value to the industry or to how you manage that mechanism and that does contravene I think some of the Commerce Commission rules and regulations.The ACT Party's view is that there's absolutely no need for this bill at all. It's actually a waste of time. This bill did receive a sort of low-key reveal of the law to make big tech pay for news. There was no launch at the "pulpit of truth". There was no big media hype about it. In fact Simon Shepherd asked Willie Jackson a year ago "Are you putting the hard word on them to secure deals to pay for content?"The potential for politicised extraordinary tactics by the Government and Minister is understandably high under this bill. People have mentioned Canada. They did introduce a similar online news Act in June 2023 and both Meta and Google have agreed to not host Canadian news content in return which has had significant impacts on consumers including during emergencies. The objective is to require platforms which host digital media to pay for media producers for their content. This is to provide sustainable income for New Zealand media companies without reliance on Government funding. It means forcing one industry for another.The Government's Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill requires that news media be subject to professional standards conditions that threaten to curtail the role of the fourth estate. This aspect of the legislation will limit media diversity by risking the viability of independent news sources who would prefer not to have their editorial discretion constrained. Creating a funding scheme only for regulated news media entities makes the media market increasingly uncompetitive for independent producers and limits media diversity. The bill has a stated intention of supporting a free and independent news media industry yet is adding a further requirement that to be eligible for funding in the scheme news entities need to be under the issue of the PIJF and simple direct funding. This is no better as a bill with the strings that are attached. The editorial decision-making is anything but guaranteed with this type of approach and the explanatory note of the bill notes it seeks to reduce risk to public media by removing direct Government funding of media.This bill has no place in the media landscape. The industry is already addressing this issue. They're already doing their own deals to make sure that this is regulated. Self-regulation in a free market is the best way forward for this industry. Thank you."