Never underestimate the value of regional media

Senator Ross Cadell talks about the importance of regional media.

Transcript

00:00Senator Cadell. Thank you, Acting Deputy President. Last weekend we had the local government elections

00:04across New South Wales and in my Hunter region. I had a few friends with success and a few friends

00:10that didn't. I had a Labor friend, Jay Savile, who I grew up with, who was unsuccessful, but

00:15I had some Labor enemies that were also unsuccessful, so it balanced out. But

00:18what was interesting is the role of local media in this. There was a surprise result,

00:22I think, in the Newcastle election where the incumbent Labor mayor was voted out.

00:26It was on the back of some persistent questioning and some exposés in the local paper. The Newcastle

00:32Herald about some of the processes in Newcastle Council, I think, contributed to that. It made

00:36me think. I had recently been approached by the Country Press Association about the plight of

00:41regional and rural papers out there in the world, struggling to get by in a media world that is

00:48also dominated by the social media we heard so much about in Senator Smith's speech.

00:53And when we get down to it, when we're talking about missing disinformation and the bill that

00:57may come here on that, we're not looking at the other side of it. It's promoting solid

01:01information, trusted information that comes from local newsrooms, from local media and from people

01:06in communities. And we need to do more of that. We need not just to slot down the misinformation

01:12and disinformation, because that is abject. We need to increase the sources of trusted information

01:18like the Newcastle Herald, like regional papers, like regional radio stations.

01:24And while Meta and these big multinational companies out there in the world continue to

01:29pay little tax, continue to walk away from undertakings they made in newsrooms and to

01:35pay for news to assist these things, all things need to be on the table. There is no policy here,

01:40I'm saying, from our side of politics, but a thought bubble. We need to start looking at

01:44turnover taxes on these companies to pay and enable local media, trusted media to do their job,

01:51to enhance investigative journalism and make our democracy better just by existing. Because

01:57you can't go down every little barrel hole and take trusted information away from the people.