Guardian Australia · Josh Butler and Tom McIlroy · Tuesday 28 April 2026
Albanese government floats a 2.25% levy on tech giants' Australian revenue to fund local journalism. Meta and Google object, predictably.
Meta calls a 2.25% levy 'simply wrong' — coming from a company whose entire revenue model is built on other people's content, that's a bit like a magpie complaining about the seed bill. Google's outraged the AI platforms got a pass, which is rich from the mob who spent a decade arguing they weren't a publisher. The bargaining code worked once because Canberra threatened to break the kneecaps. They've forgotten, so we're showing them the bat again.