Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to lend my voice to this very important debate for those of us who live in regional Australia on the importance of our regional and rural newspapers. More than 100,000 people live within the boundaries of my electorate of Ballarat. It contains small towns, such as the community of Dean, with a few hundred residents through to the burgeoning regional city of Ballarat itself. Ballarat's history has always contained a wide array of experiences. The Eureka Stockade saw 500 diggers from around the world take an oath on the Southern Cross. It saw police troopers sent in to enforce the law, backed by two army regiments following orders from the government. Each person has their own version of events from that day. Each had their own history that led them there. Ballarat's largest towns and smaller settlements are all founded by similar people and similar families, with stories just as varied. These stories do not tell themselves. Frequently, if it were not the dogged reporting of local regional papers and newsletters, they would not be told at all. Who else is going to access the opinion of a potato farmer half an hour from the nearest train line?

If a volunteer group from a town with a population of double figures runs a charity drive, are they going to get air time in a major broadsheet? I do not think so.

For stories of national significance that happen locally, local media is an absolute necessity. Without the local connection, the story will not show our perspective—something that leaves us all poorly informed. Without papers defined by that insistent focus on our communities, however small or distant they are from capital cities, we do not hear from people and they do not always hear from us. Such a bridge between parts of our community builds familiarity and can generate community cohesion, as well as give an insight into wonderful local events. These regional newspapers and the stories they tell of our communities deserve our support.

The federal government does spend a significant amount of money communicating policy, informing citizens and advertising programs through media nationally yet many of the smaller, regional publications miss out. There is an important disconnect we need to think about here. Not only is the government and its departments ignoring a communication channel that is completely integrated with target communities they want to get to but it is also failing to recognise the impact federal advertising dollars can have on regional communities, particularly on those smaller regional newspapers.

In my own electorate, we have large publications. We have a Fairfax publication inBallarat, TheCourier, which is a daily newspaper. But we also have much smaller publications across multiple areas of my electorate: The Moorabool News in Bacchus Marsh and Ballan; the leader, The Local News, in Daylesford and Hepburn Shire; The Miner, which now covers from Ballarat all the way through to the member for Corangamite's seat in Geelong; and smaller but growing community publications like the Glenlyon & District News, the Creswick District News and the Buninyong District Newsletterall of which I advertise in. These projects are not large by national standards, but in terms of 'local penetration', they connect with audiences in a way that is second to none.

Even a single government advertisement could be enough for these papers to take on a local photographer for a day a week or offer work experience to local students. By supporting regional publications, we can easily support our regional communities. Regional newspapers also play a very broad role in ensuring that local voices are heard. It is the stories within those regional newspapers, breaking stories in some instances, that are only told by local journalists who know the people to talk to, who actually go and speak to those people and who delve deep into the history of a particular issue. They also make sure that regional communities have a very powerful voice, potentially, on the national stage as some of those journalists eventually do go on to be on our national broadsheets. There is a number of journalists who started at the Ballarat Courier, for example, who I now see throughout many of our major newspapers. Many have also gone on to be editors and other staff on other newspapers. They are fantastic publications.

It is critical that these newspapers are supported. It is also important that when advertising important government programs whether it be things like tax help or whether it be particular tax concessions or small business concessions that those smaller regional newspapers are also seen as a really good conduit into those communities. They are often the paper that people will read. They may not necessarily read The Australian some will but not all—but they will pick up the local paper that covers that area. They will make sure that they have the local newsletter that covers that area as well and I would strongly encourage the government to support rural and regional media because it is in the best interests of rural and regional communities that we do support a strong regional newspaper.

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