A link to Google’s proposal to a viable news code on the company’s homepage.
David Gray | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Australia’s political opposition will support the proposed legislation that would force Google and Alphabet’s Facebook to pay publishers and content broadcasters for content, two informed sources said on Tuesday.
The bill, the prospects of which are widely seen around the world, depends on opposition support, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s ruling Liberal Party does not have a majority in the country’s upper house.
Lawmakers from Australia’s center-left Labor Party passed the bill at a meeting in Canberra on Tuesday, sources said, who were not allowed to speak to the media on the issue and declined to be identified.
The bill is expected to be introduced in parliament this week.
Google and Facebook have pressured Australia to soften the legislation, with senior executives from both companies holding talks with Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg.
Google has called for a number of changes, including its new platform, Showcase, covered by law instead of the search results generated.
Last month, Reuters said it had signed an agreement with Google to be the world’s leading news provider on the Google News Showcase. Reuters is owned by news and information provider Thomson Reuters Corp.
Google and a pressure group of French publishers agreed in January on a copyright framework for the technology company to pay news publishers for online content, the first for Europe.