Australia’s copyright laws must not be rewritten at the urging of some of the world’s richest and most powerful technology companies.

When global AI giants lobby governments while simultaneously offering billions of dollars in investment, there is an obvious risk that the rights of Australian creators, publishers and journalists will be treated as an inconvenience to be negotiated away.

A report by Noah Yim in The Australian revealed that AI company Anthropic had sought “clarity” from Treasurer Jim Chalmers and other senior government figures on Australian copyright laws. According to the report, Anthropic argued that negotiating with the “long tail” of smaller rights holders could complicate its proposed investment in Australian AI infrastructure.

That argument should concern every Australian creator and publisher.

The difficulty of negotiating with thousands of smaller rights holders is not a reason to use their work without permission or payment. It is a reason for the government to urgently establish a collective licensing system that ensures creators are fairly compensated.

This is particularly critical for regional and local news media.

Local journalism is essential democratic infrastructure. It places reporters in council chambers, courts and community meetings. It exposes wrongdoing, tests claims made by politicians and institutions, and gives communities reliable information about the decisions affecting their lives.

That role is more important now than at any time in living memory.

Social media is awash with misinformation, deliberate lies, manipulated images, anonymous accusations and AI-generated content presented as fact. Trusted local journalists provide something increasingly rare: information that has been gathered, checked and published by people and organisations that can be held accountable.

But quality journalism is expensive to produce and increasingly difficult to fund. When AI companies use professionally produced reporting, photographs and other original content to build commercial products, that material is not simply free “data”. It is valuable intellectual property created through substantial investment.

Australia should welcome AI development and new technology infrastructure. But investment cannot become leverage to weaken copyright protections or avoid paying the people whose work helped create that value. The government must act quickly to establish clear licensing rules, transparency over what content has been used, and fair compensation for both past and continuing use.

Without sustainable regional and local news media, communities lose scrutiny, accountability and one of their strongest defences against misinformation.

The principle should be simple: powerful global technology companies should not be permitted to profit from Australian creative work without fairly compensating the people and businesses that created it.

• Paul Thomas is a Life Member of Country Press Australia and managing director of Star News Group.