Australian law to curb power of social media giants is ready

AUSTRALIA’S law forcing Google and Facebook to pay for news is ready to take effect, though the laws’ architect says it will take time for the digital giants to strike media deals.

Yesterday, the country’s parliament passed the final amendments to the so-called News Media Bargaining Code agreed between government Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday.

In return for the changes, Facebook agreed to lift a ban on Australians accessing and sharing news.

Rod Sims, the competition regulator who drafted the code, said he was satisfied the amended legislation would address the market imbalance between Australian news publishers and the two major gateways to the internet. “All signs are good,” he said. “The purpose of the code is to address the market power that clearly Google and Facebook have.

“Google and Facebook need media, but they don’t need any particular media company, and that meant media companies couldn’t do commercial deals,” the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman added.

“I don’t see any reason why anybody should doubt that all journalism will benefit. These things take time. Google and Facebook don’t have unlimited resources to go around talking to everybody. I think this has got a long way to play out,” he declared.

DOVE of peace? Well, not quite in my garden.

I have a pair of collared doves that feed under the peanut hanger halfway down the lawn and they defend their stomping ground as best they can.

You wouldn’t bet on a slim and delicate dove seeing off a swaggering magpie, but I was surprised to see one dove raising its wings and stomping across to move on the bulkier corvid intruder. It sheepishly retreated.

The peanut hanger is positioned in my apple tree and attracts a typical assortment of garden birds, with the star visitor being a male great spotted woodpecker. A bird with the ‘wow’ factor.

Whenever he hacks into the peanuts, all the crumbs tumble down on to the grass below. The doves must think it rains food when woodpeckers are around.

I’m pleased to also see reed buntings are back this year – very similar in appearance to house sparrows, but the males have much more black on the head and both sexes have white outer tail feathers. Some years they are around, others not and I feared they had gone for good.

The other bird worthy of mention that joins the doves under the peanut hanger is a grey wagtail. This is a bit of a misnamed bird, given it has a bright lemon belly and looks far more colourful than the drab ‘grey’ suggests. However, it does have a grey back, and the name ‘yellow wagtail’ has already been taken by a closely related summer visitor.

Pied wagtails are common garden visitors, but the grey wagtail, a species closely associated with freshwater, less so and has undoubtedly been attracted by the stream that cuts down to the neighbouring field. It is the waggiest of the wagtails, beating out baton rhythms with its long tail, possibly as a form of communication or to flush out insect prey, it remains something of a mystery.