The door to an Australian tech tax is clearly ajar. Can Labor make it happen?

Australian treasurer Jim Chalmers. ‘It’s not clear whether this late into its first term the Albanese government can join up all the complex pieces of work required to make a tech tax happen.’ Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

If there were awards for honesty in politics, last week’s gong would go to Bill Shorten for being the first in Labor to spell out that the reason it may propose capping – not banning – gambling ads is to save the skin of traditional media, not gambling companies.

Shorten’s outing on Q&A to warn that “free-to-air media is in diabolical trouble” made it clear that the issue is the further erosion of media companies’ revenue base, amid other threats such as Meta’s decision not to renew journalism funding deals.