New Zealand will pursue legislation forcing media outlets to pay for their content

New Zealand’s conservative coalition government announced on Tuesday that it would introduce a bill that would force digital technology platforms to pay media companies for news.

The bill comes as New Zealand media companies battle tech giants for advertising dollars.

Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith announced that the Fair Digital News Trading Bill, introduced last year by the previous Labor government, would be introduced in Parliament with amendments to support “our local media organizations to earn revenue from the news they produce”.

The proposed changes would align it more closely with Australia’s digital commerce law, Goldsmith said.

The law, which came into force in Australia in March 2021, empowers the government to negotiate content distribution deals with internet companies such as Facebook-owned Meta Platforms and Alphabet Inc’s Google, but the parties have not reached an agreement on payments.

Meta and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the proposed legislation in New Zealand.

After Canada introduced a similar law in 2023, it banned meta news content from appearing on Facebook. Meta said it plans to stop paying Australian media outlets for news and the government is considering whether to intervene.

Goldsmith said the proposed changes would give the communications minister the power to decide which digital platforms fall under the law. An independent regulator will be appointed as an officer of the bill, he said.

The right-wing ACT New Zealand Party, one of the ruling coalition partners, will not support the bill, Goldsmith said, meaning it would need support from other parties to pass.

The opposition Labor Party said it would reconsider the amendments but supported the intent of the bill.