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

I rise to congratulate the Plains Producer, which is a newspaper in my electorate which serves the country community of Balaklava, on their success in the recent Country Press SA newspaper awards. The newspaper has a fine history in winning such awards. It was judged best in its category in 2009 for newspapers with a circulation under 2,500. It also got an award in 2008 and other awards in the 1990s. But this year the newspaper won two awards in some open categories, against 30 other papers: one award for Best Editorial Writing, won by Mr Terry Williams, who is the editor of the paper; and the award for Best Sports Story, won by Lauren Parker.

Terry Williams is a bit of a character, and I noticed in the article by the Plains Producer about its awards that he was congratulated by Judge Peter Fuller, who said:

Terry employs a diversity of style deftly—the Letter to the Prime Minister was satire at its very best.

I must confess I did not read that particular editorial by Terry; no doubt it would have been unwelcome from my point of view! He does have a particular style, wit and character, and he has certainly brought those skills to this country newspaper. So it is good to see that he has been recognised for his very energetic editorial writing.

As I said, Lauren Parker, a Plains Producer reporter who has regrettably left the newspaper, won the award for Best Sports Story, which was a human interest story about the Mallala Football Club’s coach Keith Earl, who coached his team to a grand final win despite his having been badly burnt in a fire. So I think that is a tremendous effort by both Mr Earl and the reporter, Ms Lauren Parker.

It is great to see a country newspaper recognised in this way. I hope the Plains Producer continues to run to very many copies, week in, week out, for this great local community.