Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Recently, Mildura was very disappointed to hear the news that the WIN news TV service was going to be closing in the township of Mildura. It is recognised that the media landscape has changed. In 1992 there were five metropolitan television stations, and there were seven regional broadcasters, three major newspapers and then some independently owned newspaper groups. Now, 23 years later, we have 16 metropolitan news broadcasters, seven regional broadcasters still, and 39 online news presences. The advertising dollars have diluted. The way that people get access to their news has changed.

The question that has been asked in my electorate is: 'Can we regulate that Mildura can have a news service?' It was perhaps an oversight that, under the Hawke government in 1987, Mildura was not included in the legislative framework to have to have regional broadcasting. But it is important that regional Australia can tell its story. It is important not only that the people that live in the community can feel proud of what they do and the community they live in but also that the stories of regional Australia are shared with the broader Australian community. That helps us have a fuller understanding as a community and helps us be proud of the country that we live in.

I will write to the ABC management, talking about the importance of a visual presence to tell our story. There is, I think, potential to have stringer cameramen and odd journalists placed in regional Australia. I have also got a meeting with the Minister for Communications to discuss this.

I want to pay tribute to the staff at WIN news in Mildura and to their professionalism. They were told on the Thursday night that their station was being closed and that they were going to have jobs, if they chose, in different parts of the WIN news network, and they were given the option of whether to do a story. The professionalism of these young men and women, cameramen and journalists—tears in their eyes when they were not in shot—showed in their love for their community and how they told the good news story.

So I am a strong believer that there will be technology that will come around in the future as different ways of communicating our story arise. But I just want to make it very clear: I am disappointed, of course. I am disappointed because our story will not have as many opportunities to be told in a visual sense. I will be trying to make some advocacy happen.

There is just so much good in regional Australia and so much that we should be proud of, and the good news story needs to be told. So I hope that we can look at new ways to make sure that that story gets out to the broader Australian population so that we can be a little bit more informed and more proud of Australians right across the continent.