Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to recognise the work of Mr Russell Kinsey, better known as Rusty. Rusty, a cameraman with Prime7 News, was recently made redundant—a decision that I think was very ill considered by the management of 7NEWS. Rusty left the cotton industry 44 years ago and started work as a cameraman with Midstate Television, which finally merged and made Prime, and then, for the last few years, with 7NEWS.

Over that period of time, Rusty had rubbed shoulders with royalty. He'd been involved in and witnessed nearly every major event that happened in the Central West and western New South Wales. Rusty covered events such as the Nyngan floods, and I believe that he actually had to go out in a boat and fly on a plane and a helicopter to be able to properly cover that event.

Over the years, Rusty has been the anchor in that newsroom, and he has trained, or broken in—whatever term you would like—numerous young journalists. Quite often, their first job as a journalist was to be sent to the country. Rusty knew his way around. He knew how they could use their craft, and many of these journalists have moved on to much more high-profile jobs. They tell me that the list of journalists that Rusty trained is more than a page long. That's how many people he's worked with.

I particularly would like to offer my personal thanks for the professional way that he has covered issues that I've been involved in in the last 17 years—in my time as, firstly, a candidate and, for the last 16½ years, as the member for Parkes. Quite often on a weekend, Rusty would be there on his own, holding the microphone, holding the camera and asking the questions always with a pair of shorts on. I never saw him even in the dead of winter in long pants. He is a real newsman of the finest order. He now will spend more time on his antique motorbikes, either restoring them or riding them. I'm going to miss the interactions I've had with Rusty. Enjoy your retirement, mate. You've deserved it.

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