I don't really see where the Aussie government has a stake in the news business. This is a matter of who pays for what in news. It is not a matter of national importance. What is compensated to a news search engine, by a news source is between those parties. If the parties aren't able to do this, there is the courts. The government should not have an interest in the outcome.
Ah but the man behind this push for payment is probably Rupert Murdoch, who owns most of the print media in Australia. Murdoch has the power to make or break governments and political leaders. What Murdoch wants, Murdoch usually gets. He wants money. His news media is mostly paywalled.
Murdoch also wants to eliminate our national news and entertainment institution, the government funded ABC but that is another story.
Our government has a David and Goliath complex and has taken on two giants - China and Mark Zuckerberg - and has taken a serious blow each time. Australians like to think that we punch above our weight and with some exceptions have generally been supportive of the current government.
China responded with trade sanctions and Facebook by eliminating all links to Australian news. Zuckerberg made a mistake here. We love our ABC, which is a free service, and by taking this action he eliminated important public interest information in the time of COVID and quite a lot of other important communication that many rural people depend on such as weather forecasts from the Board of Meteorology.
Whatever happened behind the scenes, we now know that a deal has been struck that will probably please Mr. Murdoch, and the government, currently mired in some juicy scandals, will be glad to get this problem off its plate. Zuckerberg isn't really worried too much about what he is being asked to pay in Australia for journalism produced by mainstream news outlets but if India starts asking for money that will be a very different story. That is a much bigger market.
Facebook to reverse news ban on Australian sites, government to make amendments to media bargaining code - ABC News
Lots of other relevant links at the bottom of the ABC News page. All free to view.
