The Coalition wants to grill Labor over its tech levy. But when asked about Trump, it goes silent

The Coalition is putting the Albanese government’s feet to the fire over its promised tech levy, demanding confirmation that it will still pursue the policy despite the Trump administration’s threats of retaliation against nations that regulate US tech giants. 

But the opposition is staying quiet on how it would propose to handle Donald Trump’s ire over the issue.

In response to questions from Crikey about what the Coalition’s stance is on Labor’s news bargaining incentive, Liberal communications spokesperson Melissa McIntosh said the opposition would urge the government to get on with it. 

“The government needs to clarify the status of this policy and whether media companies will get paid under their proposal,” McIntosh said. “Labor has failed to take action on the news media bargaining code for over a year, turning a world-leading competition policy into nothing at this stage. The Coalition supports strong competition policy that delivers for consumers and small businesses.”

However, when it came to our questions about how Labor is handling Trump’s tariff threats, and what the Coalition would do differently, both went unanswered. 

Trump recently signed an executive order titled “Defending American companies and innovators from overseas extortion and unfair fines and penalties”.

The order threatens retaliatory tariffs against foreign governments accused of exerting “extraterritorial authority” over US tech companies. 

Capital Brief reported on Monday that News Corp’s New York-based executive vice-president Todd Thorpe — a former Republican congressional staffer — told a meeting in Canberra that the Trump administration is more focused on tackling tech regulation in Europe than it is on Australia’s news media bargaining policies. 

“The implication was that Australia’s news bargaining incentive, which has been described as a tech levy, is not currently considered a hard target of Trump’s escalating global trade war by stakeholders in the US. However, the situation is volatile and could be subject to change,” the outlet reported. 

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been in Washington in recent days holding meetings with Trump’s top Treasury official Scott Bessent, reportedly focused on fending off the threat of tariffs on Australian steel and aluminium. 

According to The Australian Financial Review, Trump sent a memo to Bessent ahead of the meetings that set off alarm bells for Australia.

“Foreign governments have increasingly exerted extraterritorial authority over American companies, particularly in the technology sector, hindering these companies’ success,” Trump was quoted as saying in the memorandum, adding the US would impose retaliatory tariffs and other punishments to “repair any resulting imbalance” created by policies imposed on US tech giants. 

Meanwhile in Canberra, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones, who recently announced he would retire at the next election, has been tasked with developing the news bargaining incentive. 

The proposed incentive is designed to encourage companies running “digital platforms operating significant social media or search services” such as Meta, Google and TikTok, to directly negotiate deals with Australian news media publishers or face a government levy that will fund journalism.

Jones declined to make any specific comments on the Coalition’s quotes to Crikey. A spokesperson for Jones said: “The Australian government continues to work constructively with the US government across a range of issues including the news bargaining incentive.”

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