Facebook owner Meta’s decision to stop paying news publishers for content should sound the alarm bell for regional media outlets, Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster says.

The former Coalition government passed legislation in 2021 requiring platforms like Meta to pay Australian news outlets for content shared on their platforms. Meta’s media payment deals were due to expire in the next few months and had provided Australian media companies, including the ABC and Nine, with up to $200 million.

Dr Webster agreed with the Country Press Australia president Andrew Schreyer’s assessment that it was a devastating blow, noting that Meta will keep paying the CPA outlets ‘until it expires’ and will not be renewed.

Funding from Meta and Google had allowed the ABC to create 60 regional jobs around Australia, while larger media companies are often the parent company to regional outlets.

“I will be raising this situation in the Federal Parliament when we return to Canberra,” Dr Webster said, noting she was chair of the Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts when it delivered its paper ‘Pressing Matters: report on Australia’s regional newspapers’.

“Regional media outlets provide such a valuable service to our country towns, especially across a diverse electorate like Mallee, and Meta’s funding was key to keeping these outlets invested in our regions. Local knowledge cannot be replaced by syndicated copy from the city. The stories and experiences of country Australia simply can’t be replicated by journalists who aren’t invested in the community.”

Dr Webster said the Albanese Labor Government needed to stand up to Meta and support regional media.

“I call on Minister Rowland to designate Meta under the News Media Bargaining Code, which would force it into arbitration with media companies to determine remuneration for news content,” Dr Webster said.

“Throughout the Pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis of the past few years the regional media landscape has lost mastheads and stations – this cannot be allowed to happen as a result of Meta’s actions.”