Country Press Awards

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (15:42): I rise today to talk, firstly, about an award won by a newspaper in the electorate of Flinders. If I have time, I will go on to talk about a football match that is going to occur in the next week or so in the electorate of Flinders because I think it is always good to use the grievance debate to talk about local issues.

Last Friday night, in the Barossa Valley, in the seat of Schubert, the Country Press Awards were held. Newspapers from all over South Australia competed in various categories, and I am going to congratulate a couple of them from my part of the world that won awards. Firstly, the Eyre Peninsula Tribune, which comes out of Cleve, was a runner-up award winner in the under 2,500 circulation category, and big congratulations go to the Port Lincoln Times, which won best newspaper in the 6,000 and over circulation category. It was a wonderful effort by both those papers and, in particular, congratulations go to the Port Lincoln Times.

The award ceremony was attended, as I understand, by the managing editor, Chris Coote. He was very pleased to win the award and gratefully accepted it, and they went on to have a very enjoyable night. The Port Lincoln Times also won the Best Advertisement Feature award for its eight-page feature on DK Quarries' 50^th year in business. I recall that feature; it was very well done, and my congratulations go to DK Quarries and the McDonald family on spending 50 years in business.

According to the Best Newspaper judge, Bruce Morgan, the 'outstanding commitment to community journalism came through on every page' of the Port Lincoln Times. I think that highlights the commitment and the effort made by the paper to reflect a broad range of views and to report any number of events that might occur in a small community newspaper. He also went on to say, 'Overall, this seems a proud community newspaper that takes its leadership role seriously.' They were welcome comments, indeed.

In fact, the Port Lincoln Times, as a country newspaper, has been in existence for almost 90 years. I mentioned Chris Coote, the managing editor, but also congratulations must go to all his staff for the work they do in a relatively small community. The Port Lincoln Times enjoys wide readership, and at one point the circulation almost matched the number of households within the district, so the importance of local media was highlighted through these award nights. In these days of digital and social media, it is nice to see that a focus can come back onto the printed media.

The Port Lincoln Times, along with the Tribune and the Sentinel, service Eyre Peninsula. It is also worth mentioning that a number of local radio stations and Southern Cross Television also report and broadcast into the area, so what these local media outlets manage to do is keep their local communities well connected. Country communities tend to be well connected anyway, but certainly when you have local papers and local media, such as the Port Lincoln Times, that local content and local connectedness are certainly encouraged.

I want to briefly talk about the upcoming football season, and of course football is particularly important for a lot of people in the country. It is not far off and many of the teams are training already—not that I ever started this early, Tony. Many of the teams are training already, and I am particularly pleased to inform the house that the Adelaide Crows are coming to Port Lincoln to play the first of its NAB Challenge matches. They are playing against North Melbourne in Port Lincoln this coming Sunday, 1 March. That is very exciting for no doubt the Adelaide Football Club but also the people of Lower Eyre Peninsula and Port Lincoln.

The match is at Centenary Oval and starts at 4.10pm local time. I am glad they have highlighted that it is local time—nine hours 30 minutes ahead of GMT, plus daylight saving. I make light of it, but it is 4.10pm local time. They are expecting the game to sell out, so I would encourage anybody who is planning to get along, and I am one of them, to get their tickets very soon.