Seven’s news boss argues Australia’s “archaic” commercial broadcast tax, which rakes in $45 million each year, is an attack on journalism and a tax on the truth and facts.
Seven West Media’s director of news and current affairs Anthony De Ceglie is calling on the Albanese Government to bin the commercial broadcast tax to help the fourth estate fight against “dark corners of the internet” and “evil forces” behind social media.
De Ceglie, will tell the Melbourne Press Club today the government should scrap the 60 year old commercial broadcast tax and investigate rebates for the costs of producing news and current affairs.
“Licence fees paid by Australian broadcasters are now the highest in the world at 52 times more than the equivalent per capita charge on our US peers,” De Ceglie is expected to say according to an excerpt shared with B&T.
“No other comparable jurisdiction in the world places tax burdens of this kind on broadcasters.
“Make no mistake, I am using today’s speech to call on the Albanese Government and the Dutton Opposition to vow to scrap the Commercial Broadcast Tax immediately in the name of journalism.”
The Australian government uses a Commercial Broadcast Tax to charge broadcasters for radiofrequency spectrum they use. It is not a tax, per se, on journalism, but rather the advertising revenue that broadcasters make across its whole suite of programming, including entertainment and sport.
For Seven, Nine and 10, the CBT will rake a combined $45 million into government coffers.
Shining a light on ‘conspiracies’, ‘anti-vax cookers’ & Elon Musk
De Ceglie’s battle cry comes at a time when major broadcasters, including Seven West Media and Nine, have made hundreds of staff redundant, with newsrooms across the country being heavily hit.
It is also a time when greater scrutiny is being placed on disinformation being spread across social media platforms and to try and influence the outcomes of elections, not least of all the Donald Trump vs Kamala Harris battle in the US.
“We are the shining light on the hill in an increasingly dystopian world of conspiracy theorists and deepfakes and anti-vaxxer cookers,” De Ceglie said.
“Elon Musk doesn’t care about the truth. In fact, he revels in peddling lies and boasts about using his bin fire of a site to influence the US election.
“Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg is seemingly happy for Meta to profit off the page impressions that child sex offenders create when they routinely use his site to prey on their next victim.
“Not even the parents of dead children are enough for Facebook to take seriously the harm it is doing to society.”
Meta would dispute this last claim, arguing that it takes online harm seriously and is working with the government to find solutions to protect minors.
De Ceglie’s point, however, is that the government should do more to help out the Australian media. This includes a rebate for the production of news and current affairs, above and beyond current rebates for film and television production.
“Against these evil forces – and calling them that is not an exaggeration – there is only one true antidote,” De Ceglie said. “The news. The truth. The fourth estate.
“In a world where the proliferation of misinformation has never been worse, our role as journalists has never been more important.
“But we can’t do it alone. And the Government – who tells voters so often of their fears about social media – needs to realise this and step up to help us.
“If the Prime Minister is genuinely worried about the toxicity of Facebook and Meta and X and TikTok … then bloody well give a helping hand to the journalism that fights for facts.
“The government needs to stop treating Australia’s news stations with disdain.”
