Australia has extended and strengthened its groundbreaking news media bargaining code following a review.

Assistant treasurer and financial services minister Stephen Jones and communications minister Michelle Rowland have announced that the government will implement all recommendations of treasury’s review of the code, which had lauded its success in its first year.

More than 30 commercial agreements had been inked between Google and Facebook owner Meta, and a cross-section of news businesses, finding that the agreements were “highly unlikely to have been made without the code”.

Its aim is to help support Australian news media by addressing bargaining power imbalances between the digital platforms and news businesses.

Treasury made five recommendations to improve the Code’s operation, including amending the code to give the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission powers to gather information about the platforms and the commercial deals in which they engage.

A further review of the code will be commissioned in early 2025, four years after its introduction, and after many of the current commercial agreements have expired. The statement says there have been a small number of cases where registration provisions have not delivered the “desired outcomes” and these will be monitored and the issue “revisited”.

The government expects digital platforms will “negotiate in good faith” towards the renewal of existing agreements, and potentially new agreements.

Stephen Jones said the review had made “sensible recommendations” to strengthen the code, which had their support. “But let us be very clear: we already have the power to designate digital platforms and we are prepared to use it.

“We want to see news outlets and digital platforms come together and negotiate in good faith.”

Michelle Rowland said the government wanted to ensure the sustainability of public interest journalism in the digital age. “Supporting these recommendations will help improve the framework overall and ensure Australian news media businesses are properly remunerated for their journalistic content through commercial deals with platforms”.