Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I hear the member opposite saying there is a lot to promote. All I am asking is that they give country papers their share of the promotion dollar. Otherwise, there is a suspicion that this is aimed at cities and marginal seats, and not aimed at truly giving information to the public.

The classic example of this is the $20,000 instant asset write-off, which was advertised in the city press before the end of the 2014-15 financial year, but someone must have forgotten about the regional press. Yet where do we find the small businesses, the subcontractors and the people who create the great wealth of this nation? Where do you find them? You find them out in country towns; you find them out in farms and in regional communities; that is where you will find them. They deserve information just as much as the marginal seats in the city. They deserve the information.

There are 250 regional publications with Country Press Australia, who are in the building and lobbying MPs, so they will be around to see everybody. I think they have sent everybody a copy of every regional paper that they can get their hands on. It is important that the government advertising dollar responds to this campaign, because it is a campaign that is grounded in the public interest.

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