We have two sources of information on the new government’s media policy: campaign announcements by the expected Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland, and a costings document released in the days before the election. These promises are mostly short-term cash injections, with no large-scale reforms yet announced, but there is a suggestion that more creative change could be coming.

First, the cash. $15m was announced to support print news in the face of significant increases in the price of newsprint, following a campaign by Australian Community Media and Country Press Australia. The Coalition promised $10m for regional print newspapers; Labor matched that amount, and added an additional $5m for print businesses in the cities.

A further $2m will be provided to newsprint producer Norske Skog to investigate replacing a coal-fired boiler at the company’s Boyer Mill in Tasmania.

The ABC will also receive more money, with $83.6m to be provided over four years, and both public broadcasters are set to have their funding terms extended from three to five years. Labor will also investigate relocating the SBS from Artarmon to Western Sydney, keeping a commitment made at the 2019 election.

The community broadcasting sector will also see some cuts reversed. The Commonwealth provides funding through the Community Broadcasting Program, which was budgeted to drop from $20.37m in FY23 down to $16m the following year. Peak body for radio the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia called $20.37m per annum the ‘critical baseline’ for viability in a pre-budget submission, warning that pre-existing shortfalls were already restricting the ability of stations to sustain essential services, particularly in regional Australia. Labor has announced a return to the $20m funding baseline from FY24 and suggests it will ‘work with the sector to identify a sustainable funding basis for the future’.

Community television also gets another lifeline, with Labor suggesting it will keep Channel 31 Melbourne and Channel 44 Adelaide on the air until it has another use for the spectrum they occupy. 

In their policy costings, Labor identifies a $1b advertising spend by the former Coalition government as a ‘key example of rorts and waste’. The document says that the Commonwealth’s advertising, travel and legal expenses combined will be reduced by $142.5m each year through FY26, totalling $570m. The document does not make it clear how much of that total will be advertising, but a reduction in advertising spend is likely to hit news businesses.

Lastly, Labor announced a News Media Assistance Program. There is little detail on this item and no funding attached to it, but it seems to pick up the recommendation from the House’s recent inquiry into regional newspapers for government investment in further research and data. The program will ‘secure the evidence base needed to inform news media policy interventions and formulate measures to support public interest journalism and media diversity’. Though currently undefined, the Program could be one avenue for deeper thinking about news media policy in the future.