Speaking of unprincipled media laws that produce totally predictable unintended consequences ...
Duncan and guest Tim Burrowes (ABC MediaLand) also discuss the fate of the Oz government's attempts to impose a link tax on DataFarmers. Which went wrong in all the ways tech activists warned about, and more;
https://thespinoff.co.nz/media/02-12-2025/the-fold-australias-big-tech-revolution-rolls-on
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Albanese's government has come up with a new proposal. Which looks to be a kind of digital ad tax, like what Better Public Media were proposing here as an alternative to Willy Jackson's link tax (#FDNBB).
Except with plenty of wiggle room for the DataFarmers to pick who gets the money (cronyism, yay!). Instead of a public body like NZ On Air making decisions in the public interest, about which projects who deserves and needs the available funding the most (eg salaries for more journos).
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Not only do Ozzie regulators show no sign of having started to get their heads around how digital tech works, they don't even seem to understand the basic political economy of it. Despite having a few years worth of policy mistakes to learn from, across multiple governments.
Anyway, if you have any interest in tech or media regulation, particularly as it's playing out in Ozzie or NZ, it's well worth listening to this podcast episode in full.
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