Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) the importance of rural and regional newspapers in providing a vital service to the towns and regional communities they cover; and

(b) that maintaining a viable rural and regional press is in the interest of regional communities; and

(2) recommends that the Government:

(a) considers reviewing the amount of government advertising in regional papers;

(b) recognises the significance of its decisions regarding government advertising and the impact that these decisions can have on regional publications; and

(c) stops discriminating against newspapers which service rural and regional areas through its changes to government advertising.

I have many papers in my electorate. I remember growing up in Kapunda and reading both The Bunyip and The Leader. The Bunyip is a great country paper with a great history. It serves Gawler and the immediate surrounds of that town. The Northern Argus serves Clare and the Gilbert Valley. The Barossa Herald serves the Barossa and the outer Gawler area. TheLeader,based in theBarossa obviously serves the Barossa but it also stretches across into Kapunda, my home town. The Plains Producer services Balaklava, and the Two Wells & Districts Echo serves the people of the Adelaide Plains.

These are very important papers, trusted sources of information in these towns. They are trusted to both record the ebb and flow of country life—the sport and the community events—but also to bring the news of the nation and news of government programs to their local community. That is why I can attest to their importance. Several times as a local member, and also as a candidate for public office, I have advertised in these papers. I can attest to their efficacy in terms of advertising dollars.

About 32 per cent of the nation is rural or regional, and we know that these country newspapers have the highest levels of content of any medium; they are completely unmatched by radio and television. We have heard government backbenchers talking about some of the changes that have occurred in those media markets in recent years. We have seen a retreat of national news organisations from rural and regional Australia, and I think that is a great pity.

We know that they are still the most trusted paid medium in Australia, ahead of TV or radio or online sources. We know that nearly eight million Australians read regional or community newspapers. We know also that in order for these newspapers to continue to do this they have to retain and receive sufficient revenues to remain in print. They are important parts of these communities and important parts of this country. So that is why to one extent or another they rely on government as an advertiser as a source of revenue. Given that eight million people live in rural and regional settings, and given they deserve information from the government as much as people who live in the cities, you would not expect this government to cut regional advertising in the papers in the 2015-16 year by 20 to 30 per cent over what it was in 2014-15.

We have country members of the government out there sending in their press releases, expecting them to be quoted verbatim by the country journalists—

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