Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Trove has digitised 200,000 newspapers in the four months since the federal election. It is important work and an impressive figure. I congratulate all involved. But, as any student of history will tell you, context is everything. So let us look at the context for those four months and those 200,000 newspapers. In the four months prior to the federal election, Trove digitised nearly seven million newspapers. Labor took to the election a commitment to fund Trove in full over the forward estimates. The commitment meant sparing the project from the Turnbull government's budget axe. As those opposite are so fond of noting, the Prime Minister managed to cobble together the barest of majorities and call it a win. With the win came the consequences for Trove. That meant that it was down 97 per cent in its digitisation. This is what it looks like when the government does not value the work of preserving every edition of every newspaper for access by every Australian—the work of giving future generations a glimpse into the stories that shocked us, angered us, brought us together and defined us. This is why Labor promised to save Trove and this is what happens when the Turnbull government starves it.

On a completely different matter, I want to acknowledge the presence of Acting Sub-Lieutenant Kristy Leigh, who I am hoping is in the gallery today. She is the rarest of the rare: a female submariner. I wish her and her crew all the best for their next deployment.