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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-11-25 Daily Xml
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BARNET, MR C.

Mr PICCOLO (Light) (16:07): Today I wish to put on the record the contribution made to Gawler and the surrounding districts by the late Craig Barnet. Craig is a member of the Barnet family, who, for over a century, published The Bunyip newspaper and who have had a long and proud tradition of supporting the Gawler community. Craig died on Tuesday 21 October, leaving a proud legacy of service to his community.

At the outset, I wish to state that my speech, with the permission of the editor, relies heavily on the stories that have appeared in The Bunyip. Craig is remembered as a respected journalist and local historian, with an unrivalled passion for Gawler, his home of 57 years. Craig was paradoxically best known and least known for his offbeat and controversial column written under the pseudonym of Cit, pillorying, lampooning and raising the ire of people for more than 30 years. Everyone read the Cit column, particularly those who held public office, firstly, to see whether he was mocking you or who was his latest target. At some point, everyone has disliked Cit's column, but everyone has read it.

According to the current Bunyip editor, Ms Heidi Helbig, even though Craig was comfortably retired, as a result of The Bunyip being sold to the Taylor family of the Riverland, he returned to The Bunyip office every Thursday and took great delight in writing the column for a minimal fee. Craig joined the staff of The Bunyip as a journalist in 1970 and became a partner in the business in 1977. He made his mark as a journalist and photographer and, during his 33 year full-time stint at The Bunyip, won many country press awards, including best newspaper in 1993.

His unflinching approach to news reporting was only matched by his love for Gawler and its history. In 2006, he presented an 1863 hand-drafted map of 'Gawlertown' to the Gawler council for inclusion in the Gawler Civic Collection. It is at this time that the town of Gawler accepted my recommendation (when I was mayor) that the reading room in the Gawler public library be named The Bunyip Reading Room in acknowledgment of the enormous contribution that both The Bunyip and the Barnet family have made to the life and social history of the town.

The Bunyip has chronicled the development of the town of Gawler from its earliest days. We owe much of our knowledge about Gawler's past to The Bunyip. Longtime friend and colleague, Robert Laidlaw, and Craig had tentatively discussed plans to write a 150-year history of The Bunyip in 2013, and Robert hopes to see the project come to fruition in honour of his friend and mentor.

Craig was a fearsome competitor on the footy field, continuing a family dynasty begun by his great uncle Robert in 1889 and maintained by his son, James. Named in the Gawler team of the century in 2005, Craig was described as a 'tough-as-nails' half-back flanker. I was shocked by the news of Craig's death. Craig's passing is a great loss to his family, friends and community. In my view Gawler will be the poorer without Craig's presence.

I first met Craig and other members of the Barnet family back in the early eighties when I was first elected to council, and over the years a strong friendship has developed. The relationship did not start warmly, with the Barnet family seeing me as some sort of bolshie upstart, but over the years a mutual respect and friendship developed between Craig and other members of the Barnet family and myself—so much so that in the 2006 election some members of the Barnet family were on my campaign team, much to the shock and horror of diehard conservatives in the town.

Craig loved Gawler and wanted to right all the wrongs he saw in the town, using the media to draw our attention to things he thought were not right. While we did not always agree with his views, he was right to draw issues to our attention. I think Craig disliked complacency, so he poked at us to make us think about issues. We will miss his conscience. In a recent editorial, Ms Helbig said:

As a colleague, Craig was moody…colourful and engaging, in equal measures. Much like his personality, his writing was punchy, incisive, humorous and quirky. He made us laugh with his witticisms, his humour and also his cynicism.

Craig was indeed full of contrasts and contradictions. She went on to say:

When a subject stirred his emotions he was inflammatory and relentless, lampooning and pillorying through his Cit column in the tradition of his forefathers, whose charter was to 'puncture the pompous'.

The Bunyip started as a mouthpiece for the Gawler Humbug Society.

Craig is survived by his mother Daphne and three brothers John, Anthony and Paul, and their families. My heart goes out to his family, and in particular to his wife Maxine, daughter Nicki and son James. I cannot even start to imagine what a difficult and painful time this is for them.

Ms Helbig correctly said that Craig's 'inventory of insults was legendary. Among others his wrath was levelled at the bleeding heart do-gooders, anti-everything mob...' It is sad to see that Craig was not able to love himself as much as he loved his town.

Time expired.

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