This submission addresses draft Australian legislation establishing a News Bargaining Incentive, prepared by University of Canberra and RMIT researchers. Drawing on extensive regional interviews, national surveys, and stakeholder engagement, it proposes five recommendations: include AI platforms, strengthen incentives for smaller publishers, raise agreement thresholds, require multi-year deals, and enhance transparency to support public interest journalism.

This submission responds to the News Bargaining Incentive Revenue Distribution—Statutory Payment Scheme. Informed by regional interviews, surveys, and stakeholder engagement, it offers seven recommendations: strengthen eligibility, support workforce sustainability, improve funding allocation, broaden journalism roles, establish evaluation mechanisms, reduce regulatory burden for small publishers, and ensure transparency and accountability.

This report explores the gap between academic research and industry needs in the news media. It shares insights from a roundtable where media stakeholders identified key challenges and research priorities to strengthen collaboration and better align research with newsroom realities and long-term sustainability.

The Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation has been adopted by a range of technology companies including Facebook and TikTok. This submission responds to a review of the voluntary code and strongly argues against a proposal to reduce the Code's scope to focus only on the more limited category of disinformation and not...

Local news often serves as the primary source of community information and is a platform for civic participation. However, local news provision in regional Australia is declining, while audience needs are shifting. This study confirms a void in the provision of local news. The report includes key recommendations for the local news industry and stakeholders.