Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker Sharkie, and I congratulate you, as the member Mayo, for bringing this motion to the Chamber. I acknowledge that it has been more than 35 years since I started out as a cadet journalist with the Gippsland Times newspaper in my electorate of Gippsland. While there has been a massive disruption to media in those 35 years, there's no question that the information and the stories provided through newspapers in my electorate, like the Latrobe Valley Express, the Gippsland Times, The Bridge in Yarram, the Lakes Post, the Bairnsdale Advertiser and the Snowy River Mail, are still critically important in this disrupted media market.

Regional newspapers are part of the rich fabric of life outside our capital cities. They tell our stories of births, deaths, marriages, sporting achievements and natural disasters: the human interest stories and the local events. The whole rich diversity of regional and rural communities is reflected in their local newspapers. So it's terribly important that print journalism and print newspapers continue to exist in this country, particularly when they are offering such a diverse regional perspective.

It must be noted that they also play an incredibly important role in terms of the historic record of our regional communities. Being able to research information of past events is very useful from the print media perspective. Interestingly, when we reflect on this place, while they're a great training ground for metropolitan journalists and photographers, they have also been an incredible training ground for future members of parliament. For better or worse, there have been plenty of members of parliament who had a background in the regional media.

It's not just nostalgia that brings me to speak on the motion before the Chamber today. Local news does matter, and the print media does matter in making sure that our stories are heard in rural and regional communities. I believe the print media deserves our support, and I think the Commonwealth has a role to play in that regard. The previous coalition government certainly offered that support in tough times. We knew that the regional media was facing very tough times, particularly during the COVID lockdown period, and we assisted as they sought to overcome key issues, such as the rising costs of energy and paper, and ensured they were able to maintain a revenue stream during that time. We established the $50 million Public Interest News Gathering program. That allowed many regional newspaper publishers to apply for funding to support their paper's sustainability. We also funded the $60 million Regional and Small Publishers Jobs and Innovation Package, which I think is another good initiative, and it was very important that we did that at that time.

I am concerned that, while the new government has maintained some level of support, it has dropped that level of support to regional print. It worries me that we've seen a reduction in funding. I'm concerned that not enough of the members opposite actually understand the important role of regional media. There are some members here that do—I don't question that—but overwhelmingly the Labor Party and the government we have today is over-represented by metropolitan members of parliament and only a handful of what I'd call rural and regional members of parliament.

Critically—Deputy Speaker Sharkie, you touched on it in your own comments here today—regional print newspapers need revenue. They need a revenue stream. I'm concerned by reports that federal government advertising has dropped substantially since the new government took office last year, particularly in relation to the issue of the Voice and the referendum. I've been receiving letters from independent regional newspapers across Victoria who are saying to me that they've seen a massive decline in advertising. They are saying to me that if this decline in their revenue stream continues, they won't be able to employ the public interest journalists and photographers who help them publish their newspapers and it will undermine their capacity to produce a product.

What really concerns me, though, is specifically in relation to the Voice referendum. Regional newspapers are saying in their letters to us in rural and regional Victoria that independent regional newspapers have not been included in the most recent government advertising schedule for the referendum. That worries me enormously. This is an issue where making sure the public is informed of both the 'yes' and 'no' perspectives is critically important. The newspaper owners are very concerned that they have been excluded from the advertising schedule of this important referendum. The member publications of the Country Press Australia reach more regional Australians with their trusted independent local news service than any other medium, and it is a valuable way of communicating and for the government to make sure that Australians are well informed on the Voice debate regardless of whether they intend to vote yes or no. Publishers are saying to me that if this is allowed to stand, the strongest criticism of the referendum in rural an regional Australia, which is that it is a flawed mechanism focused on the power centres of Canberra and our capital cities, will be reinforced by this decision.

I thank the member for Mayo for bringing this motion before the House, and I encourage the government to support our regional print media.

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