Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week we learnt that WIN News will axe its weeknight bulletin in Shepparton. Also, Ballarat, Bendigo and Gippsland will lose their nightly news in favour of a statewide bulletin. Even in Queensland, even more regional services are being wrapped up into a statewide bulletin. This is a major slap in the face for regional and rural communities, who are too often treated as second-class citizens by city-centric companies. People have commented that this is another arrow in the heart of regional Victoria and that we need and deserve a quality and diverse independent news source.

As a keen consumer of local news, to me this loss of yet another regional media outlet is such a major blow. Fewer stories from the Goulburn Valley will be told, and less light will be shed on these important issues. Many of Australia's top television reporters cut their teeth on WIN, and, with inevitable job losses across the network, it is a major blow for young journalists.

WIN Corporation received federal government funding of almost $4.5 million in August last year which was dependent on WIN maintaining or increasing its production and distribution of public interest journalism in regional Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic phase. It can easily be argued that WIN has not upheld their end of this agreement. This is terribly disappointing for regional Australia, and I think that agreement needs to be looked at.