Labor Increases Funding for Public Broadcasters ABC and SBS

The Labor government will step up funding for both public and private media organisations as part of its latest budget announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on May 12.

Details of the plan are reported in the 2026-27 federal budget papers (pdf), outlining plans to fund media outlets and control who receives money from the proposed News Bargaining Incentive.

The funding package will include a $15 million payment from 2026-27 to the privately news wire Australian Associated Press (AAP), bringing total funding for the organisation in the 2026-27 financial year to $26 million.

An allocation of $6.4 million in the 2026-27 financial year will be made to “support the modernisation of media regulation” as well as funding “structural changes” to the Australian media market.

Funding for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the multicultural outlet Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) is also set to increase under the budget (pdf).

The government will allocate $1.29 billion (US$930 million) to the ABC in 2026–27, an increase of $58.5 million from the previous financial year, while the SBS will receive $367 million, with funding set to rise by an average of $3 million annually through 2029–30.

Broadcasters will also be exempt from the Commercial Broadcasting Tax for two years from 2026-28, a move the government says will provide temporary relief for commercial television and radio broadcasters.

The move is expected to decrease government tax revenue from the industry by $111.3 million over the next five years.

In the budget paper, the government said it also planned to legislate how money raised under its proposed News Bargaining Incentive—aimed at getting tech giants like Google and Meta to pay for news content—would be distributed, claiming it will use the money to back “public interest journalism.”

The government said part of the media support package would be funded by the “reprioritisation” of funds allocated to the 2022–23 Better Connectivity Plan for Regional and Rural Australia, a funding package previously announced by Labor to focus on infrastructure, regional development, communications, and arts.

AAP Chief Executive Emma Cowdroy praised the government’s contribution to her organisation.

“At a time when the news media industry around the world is in a perilous position, AAP’s role in feeding high levels of factual, accurate, primary-source journalism into the information ecosystem is of critical importance,” she said.

The funding for AAP comes a day after the ABC’s Media Watch program questioned why AAP was missing coverage on some significant issues the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) was facing, which other major media outlets had reported on.

The program claimed AAP had reported on some negative developments involving CBA, but had not pursued several more serious stories.

AAP’s financial reporting is partly sponsored by CBA.

Following the segment, both AAP and CBA denied any suggestion of collusion.