Sky News host Peta Credlin says there are countless news and current affairs offerings which pretend they’re impartial and objective but plainly aren’t and it’s driving consumers away from traditional media.

“Switch on the ABC’s news and current affairs offerings, these days, and how many of them are about climate change, identity politics, or supposedly systemic racism; and it’s easy to predict who the villains will be,” Ms Credlin said.

“Frankly, this is activism pretending to be journalism, and it’s one of the reasons why people are looking beyond traditional media for their news”.

More and more Australians – especially Australia’s youth – are looking to digital platforms such as Google and Facebook for their news.

“Once you’ve started clicking on Facebook or Google’s news feeds, their algorithms will send more your way, based on your interests. So, the tech giants are taking the work of the traditional media businesses, and using them, to get more and more people online,” Ms Credlin said.

Nearly $4 billion a year is now spent by online advertisers, and newspaper revenues have fallen by a third over the past decade.

“The people who produce the news aren’t getting the benefit of making it available, and the tech giants are profiting by being able to distribute the content that other people create”.

This has prompted Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to introduce world-first legislation which would force the tech giants to pay for the content they make available on their platforms.

“As the treasurer says, you can’t take something from someone, and allow others to use it, in the real world; so, you shouldn’t be able to, in the online world either without paying a fee.

“However you vote, a more lively debate, more voices not less, all of that, in this world first bill from the government is a good thing, and long overdue.”