Yeah that is my biggest problem with this legislation... the law should allow or criminalise specific behaviours or characteristics, not name specific organisations.

I'm no Google or Facebook fan but targeting them in legislation for who they are rather than what they do is crazy.

And what happens when Bing is serving everyone their news and News Corp is still not making any money?

Do they extend this particular law to any business that isn't owned by Murdoch and makes any ad revenue from news content?

The law is written such that the companies it applies to are those the Minister deems that it should. The Minister is also allowed to change the definition required for a company to fit eligibility without altering the law.

So, yes, if the Minister suddenly decides to add others to the list, that is exactly what will happen. But there's no need to pass it by Parliament first.

And that is as bad as you think it is.

That's... ridiculous.

Thanks for the info :)