Matt Burnell (Spence, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about an interview I had not so long ago to discuss the Albanese Labor government's first budget. The interview was with the Bunyip, a newspaper whose circulation covers the largest portion of my electorate of Spence. The Bunyip was first printed on 5 September 1863 and has been a constant fixture in Gawler and quite a large surrounding area since then. The Bunyip has seen, and been there to report on, South Australian premiers since Francis Stacker Dutton, whose term began a few months prior to the Bunyip's first edition, and saw South Australia join the new nation of Australia at Federation.

Their operations remained uninterrupted for 157 years until early 2020 when the pressure placed on them by the pandemic caused them to announce their indefinite closure. As a community, we are lucky that, due to strong public support, this closure lasted only months rather than years—or forever, which has, sadly, been the case for many regional publishers in the area. This longstanding, trusted institution has the young and extremely talented Brendan Simpkins at the helm as its editor. Brendan is a local who was both born and raised in the Spence electorate and has been with the paper from 2020 until recently being appointed editor in October this year. I hope to read, and work with, the Bunyip within my local area for many years to come.

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