Yorke Peninsula Country Times

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:49): It is with a great deal of pleasure that I rise today to put on the public record the appreciation, I am sure, of not only myself but also many members of parliament and a very large community that this year we celebrate the 150^th year of the Yorke Peninsula Country Times.

The Yorke Peninsula Country Times effectively started in 1865 and is still going. It is one of the strongest country newspapers and one of the few in South Australia that is still owned by a private family. I want to congratulate the Ellis family. We now have three generations of the Ellis family who have employed a very large number of people over that period of time. It is possible that, some time in the future, there could be at least one member of the fourth generation of the Ellis family who will take over the Yorke Peninsula Country Times, albeit that the current proprietor, Mr Michael Ellis, the Managing Editor, is only a young man.

The print media is very, very important, particularly in the country and, whilst over that 150 years the Yorke Peninsula Country Times has gone through considerable amalgamations, it has been a very strong, very professionally put together paper. Back in 1986, it contained about 16 tabloid pages, and now it averages about 50 tabloid pages a week. It is interesting reading a lift-out of the history of the 150 years of the Yorke Peninsula Country Times and seeing some of the advertisements, some of the jobs and some of the opportunities that have been put into the Yorke Peninsula Country Times editions week after week.

I noted particularly with interest—and my colleagues would be interested in this—that, back when it was owned by a previous family, the Taylors, who were quite vocal in their initial editorials in the Wallaroo Times and the Mining Journal, they advocated their views way back then for free trade and Australian independence from Britain and expressed a generally low opinion of politicians. One such editorial attracted the wrath of a member of parliament, who threatened to sue the Times over its content; fortunately for the Taylors, the offended member later withdrew his suit.

It is a very comprehensive paper. Yorke Peninsula is a vibrant and very strong economic region for South Australia, particularly when it comes to agricultural production and tourism, as well as fishing, which I know some of my colleagues in this place love when they get the odd day off, as rare as it may be, to be able to go over there and catch some tommy rough, whiting, squid and crabs.

The fact of the matter is that the Yorke Peninsula Country Times has a comprehensive agricultural section and a very good community social pages section, and it always has very important headlines. One of those I note in the edition in which the 150^th year publication occurred had the headline 'Emergency services reform halts for inquiry', and that was talking about the concerns of the current parliament on behalf of the volunteers who look after the community across the state, particularly with respect to Yorke Peninsula.

It is also very important that, in the print media, there is an opportunity for the views of the reader, and I note that week after week there is an extensive and diverse range of letters to the editor. If you have a look, going right back from 1859 to 2015, there have been some enormous opportunities generated by the lead-up papers to the now consolidated and well-known Yorke Peninsula Country Times.

I think that it is commendable that we still have these papers operating today. I see it having a long future. It also has a very important sports section. Whilst there may be discussions from time to time now about how print media will perform in metropolitan Adelaide, I am sure that in the country the print media will be very important for communication to communities.

I know that the Ellis family is a very dedicated, professional and caring family. Their staff have spent decades with them and enjoy their work. If any members have an opportunity, they should visit the facility. It employs a lot of people; it is state of the art with all of its technology. I trust that the Yorke Peninsula Country Times will go on for another 150 years, producing very good material for Yorke Peninsula people for generations to come and for other readers.