COUNTRY PRESS SA AWARDS

Mr BROCK (Frome) (14:46): My question is to the Minister for Tourism. Can the minister advise on the recent Country Press SA annual awards?

The Hon. L.W.K. BIGNELL (Mawson—Minister for Tourism, Minister for Recreation and Sport) (14:46): I thank the member for Frome for his question and acknowledge the great work that he does in his electorate, particularly for the large communities of Clare and Port Pirie, and it was great to be with you last week. Last Friday night, I had the great pleasure to attend the Country Press awards in Port Lincoln—the night of nights for regional journalism here in South Australia.

There were over 130 people in the room—newspaper owners, editors, journalists and sponsors for the night. It was a terrific event and that one night of the year when we can all get together and talk about the year that has gone and the future, too, for country journalism. Country newspapers are such an important part of the fabric of country communities, and they are much stronger in country regions than they are in the city because of that connection that members of the public have with their local paper.

I congratulate the local member for Flinders, as well, for being there on Friday and for his support, along with the Port Lincoln Times, which hosted the evening, in particular the editor of the Port Lincoln Times, Chris Coote. It was a tremendous show at the Port Lincoln Hotel, and there were people there from the Riverland, the Victor Harbor Times, The Border Watch, The South Eastern Times, the Plains Producer from Balaklava—and they were, of course, the Manuel family, who are very well known throughout South Australia's regional awards—and the Barossa was well represented, as was the Gawler Bunyip.

The Border Watch was crowned the best newspaper with a circulation of 6,000 or more in regional South Australia, and it is the third year in a row that The Border Watch has taken out that title. The Border Watch also won the best sports report for the year.

The best newspaper between 2,500 and 2,600 circulation was won by The Murray Valley Standard and, amazingly, it is the ninth year in a row that The Murray Valley Standard has taken out that award. It is a great newspaper and there is a lot of pressure on them to make it 10 in a row. That is pretty hard to do in sport or whatever challenge that you are taking up.

The best newspaper under 2,500 circulation was another South-East win, The South Eastern Times from Millicent and a paper I know very well, as would the member for MacKillop. The award for excellence in journalism was won by Kimberlee Meier of the Port Lincoln Times for her story on the Abel Tasman super trawler. She won the award for doing what good journalists do, and that is to keep in contact with your contacts and make the phone calls week in, week out. Don't wait for the emails to come through with press releases, but actually do the hard yards.

One of her contacts that she rings on a regular basis said that the super trawler was on its way. They had to redo the paper with just a couple of hours' notice, and that is what great journalism is all about. So, I congratulate her and I congratulate all of the journalists and the newspaper editors, and may we have for a long time in this state strong newspapers in our regions.