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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-03-14 Daily Xml
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COUNTRY NEWSPAPERS CENTENARY

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:22): I rise today to continue my celebration of the SA country press centenary as we salute all those great newspapers around the state. Last sitting week I spoke about the centenary celebrations and how I was fortunate to attend the launch of a great book by Kym Tilbrook celebrating the centenary of country newspapers in South Australia.

I missed out on attending the SA Country Press Awards 2012, but I understand it was a tremendous night. I have been before and it is always good to go along and speak to the editors and journos who do such a great job in communicating to their local areas. As I have said before in this place, I grew up in the country and I was a journalist in the city, and I have always realised the great role that country newspapers play in their community.

I would like to congratulate the prizewinners for the SA Country Press Awards 2012. For the Best Newspaper Under 2,500 Circulation, the winner was TheLoxton News. Second place went to the Plains Producer, and third place went to the Eyre Peninsula Tribune. The Plains Producer is run by the Manuel family, and Terry Williams is the editor. Terry and I used to work together at the Adelaide News. Whenever I go through Balaklava I always call in to see Terry and Andrew Manuel, who has taken over the running of the family business. The Manuels are a really great family. It was great to see Margaret Manuel at the launch of the centenary book as well.

For the Best Newspaper with 2,500 to 6,000 Circulation, first place went to The Murray Valley Standard; second place went to the Whyalla News, which I know is a great newspaper in the electorate of Giles; and third place went to the Northern Argus.

For the Best Newspaper Over 6,000 Circulation, first place went to The Border Watch in Mount Gambier, the paper that I grew up on. It was always a fantastic newspaper, along with the Penola Pennant and TheSouth Eastern Times. I used to read them quite a bit. Second prize went to The Bunyip in Gawler. Of course, every second page of The Bunyip in Gawler seems to have a picture of the member for Light in it. In the centenary book he is featured quite prominently. He is obviously a hardworking local member who gets in the paper as well as getting results and being re-elected. Third place went to The Courier of Mount Barker, which always features in the best country newspapers in South Australia. Excellence in Journalism, first prize went to Sandra Morello of The Border Watch, second prize went to Genevieve Cooper of The Courier and third prize went to Paul Mitchell of The Murray Pioneer.

We then get to Best Editorial Writing and the judge of that was Kym Tilbrook, the former Advertiser journalist, whose family has a long history of newspaper ownership in country South Australia. Kym picked The Islander of Kangaroo Island in first place for editorial writing. I will read his comments:

All three editorials submitted by editor Shauna Black were of a very high calibre. She went for the jugular in her editorial on local MP, Michael Pengilly, who lives on the island. Mr Pengilly had tweeted that the Prime Minister was 'a real dog', a statement that went viral. Shauna's well-crafted editorial left no doubt about what The Islander thought about its local MP. She branded his statement as disrespectful, rude, aggressive and inappropriate. But Shauna didn't end the criticism there. The final barb delivered a telling blow against Mr Pengilly. It said: 'For Kangaroo Island, the concerns are that we are represented by someone who cannot be taken seriously in Parliament; someone who will have few supporters and little influence in his own party to advocate for the island's needs; and that his demeanour may reflect badly on all of us.' One local emailed Shauna: 'I'll send you a Christmas card, even if Michael Pengilly doesn't.' Shauna also had some stinging barbs for the new Kangaroo Island Council elected in November, 2010.

And the judge's comments go on. Second place went to the Northern Argus of Clare and third place went to The Border Watch of Mount Gambier. The winner of the Best Sports Story was The Murray Valley Standard and Ben Brennan—congratulations to Ben—runner up was the Barossa & Light Herald, where Mike Teakle and Graham Fischer combined. Graham and I used to work together at The News when Graham was a racing writer. Third place went to the Riverland Weekly and Graham Charlton.

The Best Community Profile winner was, 'Sudanese family's daring African escape' by Brad Perry of the Riverland Weekly. Second place went to Nick Dillon of The Murray Pioneer and third went to Briohny Robinson of The South Eastern Times. Best Front Page went to The Pennant of Penola, Yorke Peninsula Country Times and the Barossa Herald, in that order.

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