Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I had the great pleasure and privilege last week, on Melbourne Cup day, of visiting the offices of Bush TV in Rockhampton, just down the road from my electorate office. I was there with my colleague Senator Clare Moore to learn about what Bush TV is doing and to hear about some of its new initiatives. Bush TV is an Indigenous social marketing and media agency. It is well known in Central Queensland as the producers of the Murri Minute. Bush TV is an organisation that works both as a production company and a training organisation. It helps young Indigenous people in Rockhampton or out at Woorabinda, a nearby Indigenous community, to get certificates I, II and III in broadcasting and media skills and to develop the skills and competence to create their own media products. It is working very well. As I said, for some years now we have seen the Murri Minute every so often on TV, telling stories about local Indigenous people, their achievements and the initiatives that are going on in their community.

Bush TV is really starting to hit its straps, starting to branch out. It is picking up contracts with organisations like National Indigenous TV and Imparja, through the Regional Aboriginal and Islander Network. It is getting a lot of work from the Queensland state government in particular. Bush TV uses 85 per cent Indigenous staff to produce its material. The Queensland government is using it a great deal to get messages out about water efficiency, safety and health. Bush TV staff go into communities and work with communities to develop their own material to get these important social messages across.

I will be meeting later this week with some of my federal colleagues to tell them what Bush TV is doing and to tell them about the potential for the federal government to also start using it. Instead of getting a health message out that has been produced in some Sydney studio, they could actually get an organisation like Bush TV to do that work and, in the meantime, be training local Indigenous people in those communities to have those broadcasting and media skills. Congratulations to the team at Bush TV. I have known about them for some time now, and I will certainly enjoy telling people about them in the federal parliament. It was great to spend the day with Kaleen and Gabrielle, the trainees, and Tom Hearn, who is the manager there. We want to see a lot more of Bush TV. (Time expired)