Senator Jacqui Lambie slams news media bargaining code

In a speech delivered on Monday Senator Lambie said the code would make Australia's media bodies more dependent on Facebook and Google than ever before.

She said it was a joke to assume that all the money created by the code would be spent on journalism.

"This is bad policy done badly, for bad reasons and for reasons of interests. Anybody who supports a strong public broadcaster should oppose this legislation. The Greens and the Labor Party should be embarrassed with themselves," Senator Lambie said.

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"Seriously! Anybody who supports a free and fair market, operating efficiently, should oppose this. It is a shakedown.

"This is a bipartisan shakedown delivered by a consensus of absolute stupidity here this evening. Journalism is important enough to deserve better than the poorly researched, poorly understood justifications being thrown around by a political class that's desperate to be noticed by the people it's clambering up to serve."

The Senator's comments came before Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced the government would amend the code after reaching an agreement with Facebook.

On Tuesday Mr Frydenberg said the amendments would provide clarity on the way the code was intended to operate.

"The amendments will strengthen the hand of regional and small publishers in obtaining appropriate remuneration for the use of their content," he said. Mr Frydenberg said as a result of the agreement Facebook would role back its ban on news in Australia.

Facebook's Australia managing director William Easton said the company was pleased to have reached an agreement with the government.

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In a further statement Global News Partnerships vice president Campbell Brown said the company retained the ability to determine if news appeared on Facebook - and would not be forced into negotiations.

Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson did not comment on whether the party would support the bill with the new amendments - due to not having seen them. But said the Greens were proud of the role they played in the debate which ensured that the ABC and SBS would receive new funding streams.

"The Code is designed to support all public interest journalism in Australia from small online digital publishers to our national broadcaster," Senator Whish-Wilson said.