NEWS LIMITED FREIGHT SURCHARGE

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:31): I rise today to inform the house of an unusual situation that has arisen across the electorate of Flinders and also in some areas of the electorate of Finniss over the last 48 hours. I have been contacted by a number of newsagents who have said to me that they have been visited over the last couple of days by representatives from News Limited, who have informed the newsagents that they would need to collect the cost of freight imposed by News Limited on newspapers sold on Eyre Peninsula and on Kangaroo Island, beginning in mid-June. I quote from a press release from News Limited, stating just that:

Starting Monday, 17 June we will add a freight surcharge of 80¢ [for weekday newspapers] and $1 Saturday and Sunday [that being the Saturday Advertiser and the Sunday Mail] to all copies of The Advertiser, Sunday Mail and The Australian to be delivered west of Cowell on the West Coast (including Pt. Lincoln and Ceduna) and Kangaroo Island.

We will ensure we communicate clearly to those customers in areas that are affected.

As you can imagine, as soon as newsagents were informed of this, they were very concerned and a number of them have contacted me. A newsagent from Lower Eyre Peninsula indicated to me that the current price of a weekday Advertiser is $1.20. An additional cost of 80¢ for freight would make that $2 a newspaper—an increase in cost to the purchaser or the consumer of 66 per cent. The Saturday Advertiser and Sunday Mail are currently $2. There would be $1 added for freight, which is an increase of 50 per cent in the cost of the newspaper. The newsagents themselves are going to be responsible for the repricing; in other words, the cost on the front page of the paper will indicate the $1.20 and $2 cost prices. The newsagent then needs to apply the additional cost and collect it.

The newsagent from Lower Eyre Peninsula is currently supplying Coles and Woolworths with their newspapers in Port Lincoln and he is understandably worried that they will begin to use their own transport to bring newspapers over at a lower cost. Most newspapers, I understand, come to Eyre Peninsula early morning by road, while some come by plane into Ceduna and Port Lincoln to arrive a little bit earlier.

A newsagent from eastern Eyre Peninsula contacted me and suggested that he currently receives 25 per cent of the sale price as profit; that is, 30¢ of each Advertiser sold and 50¢ of each weekend paper sold is direct profit to him. The increase in price is not going to increase his take at all. He is concerned that the price will affect circulation and, in turn, his sales.

A Far West Coast newsagent contacted me—and this was probably the most interesting one of all, because that person had a similar story—and suggested that they also freight in the Herald Sun which, of course, is another News Ltd newspaper that comes from Melbourne, on the east coast, and they are charged just 70¢ worth of freight to get that to the West Coast, so it is an interesting anomaly from newspapers produced by the same company.

The Far West Coast indicated to me that subscriptions are cheaper and that this current policy will turn people more towards subscriptions. They are seeing it as yet another hit against country businesses, newsagents in particular, and we have seen a number of these hits in the past. I understand that there has always been some cross subsidy with regard to freight, not just in the newspaper business but in many businesses.

I question now why it is just those country residents on Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island who are paying the extra freight. It would seem that we are now about to cross subsidise other country areas of South Australia. It is a reflection of the increasing cost of freight right across the state, and you do not have to look very far to see why this is. Registration costs, the fuel tax, the carbon tax, the road backlog and the cost of maintenance for trucks have all increased the cost of freight operators, and it all becomes a safety issue.