Country Press SA Awards

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (15:25): I rise today to speak about the Country Press SA Awards held in Clare last Friday—and, sir, when you have been here for a very long time you have heard a few of these speeches about the Country Press Awards over the years.

The awards were hosted in Clare last Friday by the Country Press SA President Mr Darren Robinson, and the MC for the evening was Ian Osterman from The Courier. It was an excellent evening and I was delighted to be joined at the awards by other members of this chamber: my colleagues the Hon. Clare Scriven and the Hon. Emily Bourke—fellow shadow ministers in this place—and of course you, sir. You are a fixture at these awards and have been for many years. It is pleasing to have colleagues like the Hon. Clare Scriven, who has a long association with the South-East and who appears regularly in country newspapers in that area, and also the Hon. Emily Bourke, who previously, I think in her earlier days, had a budding young career at the Yorke Peninsula Country Times.

Of course, you, sir, have sponsored awards and have attended at these awards many times and have spoken in this chamber on numerous occasions about these awards and their importance. It was also pleasing to be joined by a few members from the other chamber. I do not think there were as many from the House of Assembly as there were representing this chamber at the awards, but of note was the Leader of the Opposition in the other place, the member for Croydon, Peter Malinauskas. The Leader of the Opposition has for a couple of years now sponsored an award, the Best Front Page Award, which this year was won by The Courier from the Adelaide Hills.

I note, Mr President, that you have sponsored an award—since 2002 perhaps—the Best Community Profile, which this year was won by The Leader from the Barossa. The Courier also won three other awards: Best Advertisement (Image/Branding), Best Sports Photograph, and Best Sports Story. The Leader also won the Best Supplement, backing up its win in 2019; Best Advertisement (Priced Product); Best Advertising Feature; and Best Photograph and Excellence in Journalism, to bring their total to six awards for the night.

The Yorke Peninsula Country Times won Best In-house Ad. The major awards of Best Newspaper over 4,000 circulation and Best Newspaper under 4,000 circulation were won by the Murray Pioneer and the Plains Producer respectively. The Plains Producer also picked up Best News Photograph. The Bunyip from Gawler won the rest of the awards that night, as you well know having been one of the representatives, along with three Labor members, who were there from this chamber.

The awards were: Winning Editorial Writing; Best Headline, for the second year in a row for The Bunyip after winning it last year; Best Road Safety Reporting; and the Young Journalist of the Year, Sara Gilligan from The Bunyip, after being runner-up in 2019. As was noted on the night, it has been a particularly difficult year for many in society but particularly for country newspapers. The global pandemic that has caused so much uncertainty has meant tough times in many regional areas, and that has also been reflected in regional newspapers.

In Mount Gambier, The Border Watch, which was 159 years old last year and took out many awards that year, shut down in August, but fortunately the paper was saved and reopened a few months later. I might pay tribute to The Border Watch, having grown up in Mount Gambier. My first paid employment was riding my bike around the City of Mount Gambier a couple of times a week throwing out rolled up Border Watches from my backpack as a paper delivery person.

It was also pleasing to see the Deputy Prime Minister, Michael McCormack, in attendance at the Country Press Awards. He grew up in Wagga Wagga in regional New South Wales, and after leaving school started at their local paper, The Daily Advertiser, where at the age of 27 he was one of the youngest newspaper editors in Australia.

Interestingly—the Deputy Prime Minister mentioned it—he was sacked in 2002. The Deputy Prime Minister showed the power of organised labour when he was sacked at The Daily Advertiser in Wagga, after organised labour saw more than 20 journalists and photographers and other editorial staff stage a walkout in protest at the dismissal. It ultimately resulted in the Riverina Media Group settling an unfair dismissal claim. The power of organised labour was shown by none other than our Deputy Prime Minister. In closing, I would like to congratulate all those in the country press and the Country Press Awards.