Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith admits confused Government MPs caused a select committee to recommend a bill intended to address challenges in the media sector not be passed.

Goldsmith, who took over the portfolio in April after Melissa Lee was demoted, says he is still considering whether the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill is the best way to assist media companies competing with global tech companies in a challenging economic environment.

Goldsmith’s clarification followed the Economic Development, Science and Innovation select committee releasing its report concerning the bill, which included the recommendation the bill not be passed.

Introduced by the former Labour Government, the bill sought to implement a regime by which social media companies and tech giants would pay for local news content that appeared on their platforms.

The financial challenges faced by media companies were highlighted by the shock announcement of Newshub’s closure and major cuts to long-standing programmes at TVNZ.

In Opposition, Lee was opposed to the bill but upon becoming minister, she said she would wait to see the outcome of the select committee process.

Today’s report said members were “unable to agree on whether to recommend amendments to the bill”, but encouraged the House to consider the amendments the select committee explored if the House wished to proceed with the bill.

They included charging social media companies if New Zealand content was used to generate content through artificial intelligence (AI) services.

Act, which was represented on the select committee by MP Parmjeet Parmar as chairwoman, didn’t support the bill in its current form due to the “potential unintended consequences of the legislation”.

Labour and the Greens were both supportive, with the latter saying the proposed amendments would be “effective in supporting the survival of an independent news media in Aotearoa”.

Goldsmith said there was some confusion on the part of National’s MPs on the committee – Vanessa Weenink and Dan Bidois – which led to the recommendation not to progress the bill.

That would indicate National planned to vote down the bill – but Goldsmith appeared to downplay that.

“Frankly, there was some confusion on our side. We haven’t made decisions.”

He said he had requested an extension on when the committee would report back on the bill but that “wasn’t agreed”.

Asked why he asked for the extension, Goldsmith said he wanted more time as a new minister to speak with members of the sector.

“There’s some very strong support for some form of bill, there’s some suggestions that the bill could be altered in certain ways,” he said.

“There are some people suggesting that we shouldn’t do it and so there’s a wide variety of views and I’m considering all of those things.”

Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.