Exactly. It's a perfect example of crony capitalism. A political party in a symbiotic relationship with Murdoch (whose press outlets operate as the communicati

Exactly. It's a perfect example of crony capitalism. A political party in a symbiotic relationship with Murdoch (whose press outlets operate as the communications wing of the Coalition) eagerly pushes a rent-seeking law and claims it's about supporting journalism. This is the same political party that does everything it can to defund public interest journalism (via the ABC and SBS), regularly gives indefensible grants to Murdoch, and has created a climate where police raids on journalists is the new normal. The code deliberately excludes smaller publishers and the public broadcasters from any of this rent-seeking, and the ACCC in recent years has allowed significant media consolidation: allowing Murdoch to buy up most regional papers, and allowing Nine to buy Fairfax (Nine held a political fundraiser for that political party immediately after the election). The state of journalism in Australia is dire, even compared to US and UK standards, and that's largely to do with intentional political acts. Facebook and Google are in the right here.