Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, would like to rise in this condolence motion for the loss of three great reporters who told the regional story.

The ABC is the national broadcaster and whilst they have lost, in fact, four members of the ABC family last week that, in many ways, is part of the nation’s family, too, because of the stories they tell and the way they tell them. The cameraman, pilot and journalist who died in outback South Australia last week so tragically were doing what they did so well as a trio. They told the regional story, the Australian story, through the prism of the regions. They understood, better than most, the patchwork nature of our society—and that term has been used a lot lately, but each patch is different and the ability to explain those differences and present those differences is, indeed, an important work in its own right.

Paul Lockyer did this as the journalist, John Bean as the cameraman and Gary Ticehurst as the logistics operator, obviously getting them into remote areas, into difficult, otherwise inaccessible areas, certainly inaccessible for the purposes of a news cycle. They had been working together on news and feature projects in the Lake Eyre region. It was not the first time that they had been there because they had done a wonderful documentary on previous occasions in the Lake Eyre region. Like those who have had the privilege to see it with water and without water and to note the fascinating differences, to be able to record that and tell the story about it takes it to an audience that does not have the ability to access it but can nevertheless marvel at the wonderment of the change, the rehabilitation, the revival—everything that comes from the enrichment of water and flooding plains.

Paul Lockyer was one of the ABC’s most experienced journalists and he also had a great ability to tell the stories. He cut through and gave all Australians an unrivalled insight into the bush and to remote communities. He had a real passion not just for news, but a passion for the regions, and that is a great thing to see. It has been an essential ingredient of the great message that the ABC has been able to convey over the years through television and radio, but it is more than just the telling of the story, it is giving strength to the regional voice. It is believing in it, having the passion for it and articulating it in the most effective ways. All of his stories conveyed empathy, respect and a deep understanding of the issues that faced people who live and work in regional Australia. They do think differently than we do here in Canberra. They see issues through a completely different perspective and their challenge, always, is ‘how can we better our opportunities?’, rather than the hurly-burly that goes on here for so much of the time.

I mentioned before that they perished in the Lake Eyre region, but Paul had undertaken an outstanding series on Lake Eyre which he was in the process of filming. His compassion covering the recent floods also made him a household name because Paul was the voice, the only journalist effectively, to be able to get into Grantham after that devastating flood that took so many lives and changed forever the nature of that peaceful valley, a valley that carries the same name as Paul himself. But he was the voice. He was there and he was able to bring the story—the hurt, the pain, the understanding, that empathy I talked of before—he was able to bring it to the outside world, so as people were grieving he was able to demonstrate an understanding and awareness in the rest of the community of just what had happened in terms of a community that effectively had been washed off the map.

John Bean was an award winning cameraman who was with Paul at the time of the Lake Eyre series and the three were filming when the tragedy occurred. The filming, itself, will be a lasting legacy to them. It is just so tragic that they were taken in an area that they understood, that they loved and that they wanted to tell the story about.

They were experts in their field, extraordinary men who not only captured the spirit of regional Australians, but helped to tell their stories. As the ABC’s former head of international, John Tulloh, recently said of Paul Lockyer: 'He had in abundance the best virtues of humanity. So many that you would not know where to start. It’s no wonder that strangers who featured in his stories, especially in the bush, trusted him. They probably recognised the kindred country-boy spirit in him. They knew he would never exploit them and always would tell their stories faithfully and knowledgeably.'

I think that is important because the regions did trust him. He was from them and he returned to them. He never forgot them. He loved them and loved the regions in a way that he saw part of his life’s mission was to better tell their story, their challenges, their triumphs and, on a number of occasions, their miseries. John Tulloh went on to say, 'He felt for the despair and plight of farmers and their families in the dust bowls who were part of his stories.'

As I mentioned at the outset, Paul was well known for his coverage of the devastation in Grantham and in the recent Queensland floods. In relation to that, Mart Warburton of the Grantham Recovery Council said this of him: 'One of few reporters who could balance his professionalism of the job and the compassion of the heart—a true gentleman. Since the first meeting in January until now Paul would ring from time to time just to see how I am going and how the community is recovering. When he was able to come back to Grantham he would make a huge effort to try and see as many residents as he could that he knew from the disaster. We all felt that we were more than a story to Paul. That’s why he was an honorary Grantham local, a friend, and always welcome in our community.' John Bean was also a man of immense capability and popularity. He was described by his friends and colleagues as incredibly humble, positive and warm, with an infectious laugh, and like Paul and Gary was a master in his field. It is terribly important with the stories of regional Australia that the visuals are there. The skill of the cameraman is essential to complement the editing, the text and the delivery of the reporter, and John Bean was an incredible part of this team that so sadly has perished. As John’s wife, ABC Landline reporter Pip Courtney, said, ‘I just hope lots of people have a Beannie in their lives like I’ve had.’ That infectiousness and that lovability were very much part of everything that those who spoke of John are reminded of.

Gary Ticehurst was an extraordinary pilot. John Tulloh recalls this in relation to Gary Ticehurst:

In my time at the ABC there were many stirring deeds by reporters and crews, but for me there was none greater than during the disastrous 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. That is when Gary and cameraman, then Peter Sinclair, hovered in gale-force winds above stricken yachts and life rafts in tumultuous seas to coordinate their positions with rescuers, turning away only when in his calculation they had just enough fuel left to return to land. They made it with just a few litres in the tank and it was said his actions saved the lives of probably 25 crew members in that race.

It is the skills of these pilots that we rely on not only for the accessibility and the logistics work that made up the trio, in terms of the three that perished, but also the bravery, skill and precision and the ability to understand your capacity but also the task at hand and to have the determination to make the judgment, but most of all to put the saving of lives at the forefront of the determination as part of the job that he saw as his requirement to undertake.

Over the years I have had a lot to do with regional reporters and the professionals who cover regional stories. I have always found that the regional media are great to deal with. They are interested in you being there to understand their circumstances, to identify and hopefully to help. The regional reporters also call it how they see it. It does not always go our way, but that is the nature of journalism. They do know their stuff and they do know their regions and their audiences. In this tragedy Australia has lost three men who knew their audience, who knew their issues and who knew how to convey the stories of regional communities in a very powerful and compelling way. I know that they will be deeply missed and I extend my deepest condolences to their family, friends and colleagues.

Whilst I am on my feet, could I also have the indulgence to place on record my condolences for the passing of Ian Carroll, another ABC journalist whose death I think happened around the same time but after the condolence motion was moved in the parliament by the Prime Minister. I met Ian Carroll over 40 years ago when I was making it in the industrial movement and he was a reporter for the ABC in those days. It was an exciting time because there were many industrial disputes in those days when we did not have something that came to emerge called the prices and incomes accord, which in its own way helped transform the nature of this country.

I was involved in a trade union—the Storemen and Packers Union. I had just finished at university and Ian was on the round with a lot of other key journalists at the time—Ben Ainsworth, Barry Donovan, and Michael Gordon, who is still writing with the Age as National Editor. This was an exciting group to be involved in. But Ian, you knew at the time, was more than just a reporter and certainly more than just an industrial roundsman. He did have a creativity. He had big ideas about him. He went through the ABC in a number of guises but the two areas that he picked and was innovative with, and why the ABC are privileged to have these people work for them and why the nation is the better for it, were where the media was moving and the emergence of the moving media cycle. He understood that. And for that reason he pioneered the ABC Lateline program; he saw a niche. As the 6 o’clock news moved more to domestic tragedies and the like and less to political stories there was a market still there for strong political debate, and so Lateline developed and Lateline stands today.

He also understood the technology and the importance technology could play in terms of enabling the message reach of the ABC; not just the media dimension, but the message, the storytelling and all that went with it. He was instrumental in driving the ABC in the direction of the embrace of the digital economy. It is fortuitous that we reflect on that in this condolence motion, because the government is undertaking at the moment the convergence review that is looking at this whole question of the convergence of technologies. So the circumstances in which his legacy will be remembered are terribly important. I place on the record my condolences for his passing and my very best to his surviving family, in particular Geraldine Doogue.

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