The bill has disappeared from Parliament’s schedule of business.
New Zealand’s Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill, designed to force tech giants to make agreements with New Zealand media firms to pay for using their content, appears to have disappeared from the government’s agenda.
Originally slated for its second reading on Nov. 13, when Parliament debates and then votes on a bill, it was relegated to number 13 on the day’s agenda, effectively preventing debate.
“We’ll let you know when there’s something definitive. There is no date to advise at this stage. The government will make announcements when it’s ready,” said a spokesperson for Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith.
However, this office did not provide a timeline or confirm the government’s continued commitment.
One government source called the Bill “snagged,” while another said, “Apparently, it’s over.”
Officially, it is not clear whether the Bill will be formally withdrawn or if it will return in a new, heavily amended form.
The legislation, introduced by the previous Labour government, has received the enthusiastic support of New Zealand media companies and was supported by National and NZ First during negotiations earlier this year.
However, it has faced opposition from the ACT Party, which used the “agree to disagree” clause in the coalition agreement to signal its disapproval.Since it was drafted, the situation for New Zealand’s media has worsened.
Newshub has closed, TVNZ has axed news shows, NZME has lowered its earnings forecast, while privately-held Stuff—which took over news production for TV3 following the Newshub closure—earlier announced a restructure to cut costs.
Tech companies have also pushed back strongly against the Bill.
Last month, Google threatened to stop indexing and displaying New Zealand news if the law was passed.
The company’s New Zealand Country Director Caroline Rainsford said in a statement that it was not the right way to foster a sustainable future for news.
“This bill proposes a ‘link tax’ that would require Google to pay simply for linking to news articles,” she said.
“While Google supports efforts to foster a sustainable future for New Zealand news, this bill is not the right approach.”
She warned the government that under such a law, Google would make significant changes to its products and news investments.
“Specifically, we’d be forced to stop linking to news content on Google Search, Google News, or Discover surfaces in New Zealand and discontinue our current commercial agreements and ecosystem support with New Zealand news publishers.”
That support included the Google News Showcase—a licensing program that Rainsford said covered over 95 percent of New Zealand digital news publishers and resulted in the company paying millions of dollars per year to almost 50 local publications.
“We believe there is a sensible path forward and have proposed reasonable alternatives to the government that do not harm smaller, local or regional publishers and maintain the principles of the open web, in line with recent agreements we’ve reached elsewhere,” Rainsford said.
“Further strengthening New Zealand’s news industry will require additional public and private support from both the New Zealand Government and a broad base of private companies.”
In July, the Media and Communications Minister was asked how much revenue publishers might expect to make if the Bill passed.
“There was talk of around $30 million possibly being at stake around the Google agreement,” Paul Goldsmith said.
“There’s possibly $6 million or so to be made out of the extra advertising revenue, but it comes down to how the negotiations go.”
He said he and his officials had “met with Google on a number of occasions to discuss their concerns” and would continue to do so.
ACT leader David Seymour criticised the Bill, saying the news media in New Zealand needed to “stop blaming the internet and start looking at their product.”
“It is not accurate to describe the bill as any kind of ‘bargaining,’” he said.
“Instead, politicians would decide who gets what, which undermines the separation between government and media … which is fundamental to democracy.”