Google has threatened to pull its search engine from Australia if the federal government proceeds with a planned media code that would force the tech giant to pay for news content.
Executives from the social media giant have fronted a Senate committee examining a bill underpinning the proposed legislation.
The company’s Australian managing director Mel Silva warned Google would be forced to stop making its search engine available in Australia if the current code proceeded.
“It would give us no real choice but to stop making Google search available in Australia,” she told the committee.
Independent Senator Rex Patrick pressed Ms Silva on why the social media giant would take such a drastic step.
“Do you think that’s the proper conduct for a large international corporation like Google,” he asked.
“Any rational business needs to assess the impacts of any legislative change on our business, our product and our operations,” Ms Silva replied.
“It is the only rational choice if this law were to pass for us.
“We have a workable solution. We’re not opposed to a code, we’re not opposed to paying publishers for value but the details matter.”
Liberal National Senator Susan McDonald also asked Ms Silva about the threatened move to leave the market.
“If you care about Australians and Australian businesses – why would you make this threat?” she said.
“This is a worse case scenario for us – it’s not a threat it is a reality,” Ms Silva replied.
“We do not see a way that with the financial and operational risk that we could continue to offer a service to Australia.
“That’s the last thing we want to do – [but] we have equally been preparing for other scenarios and we think we have a very clear workable path to get there.”
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) estimates Google accounts for around 95 per cent of search traffic.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday said the government would not respond to Google’s threats.
“Let me be clear. Australia makes our rules for things you can do in Australia,” he said.
“That’s done in our parliament, it’s done by our government and that’s how things work here in Australia.
“People who want to work with that … you’re very welcome. But we don’t respond to threats.”
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg introduced the underpinning bill to parliament in December, praising the legislation as a “world-leading” code.
The government has stated it would prefer Facebook and Google to negotiate commercial deals with news media companies.
If these talks fail the parties would be forced into talks under the “bargaining code” to decide how much the digital platforms should pay.
One of Google’s main concerns is that it would have to pay all registered news businesses for having results through the platform’s search engine.
The company doesn’t want this and is instead offering to have its “news showcase” feature included, which allows users to read some stories that are otherwise behind paywalls.
The mandatory code aims to combat the power imbalance between news businesses and digital platforms.
Additional reporting by AAP.
