ADJOURNMENT
Ms PENFOLD (Lyne) (16:50): I rise to speak about the future of regional television news and what it means for people in my electorate. For generations, regional television news has been more than a nightly bulletin. It has reported on floods, bushfires and droughts.
It has celebrated local achievements, told local stories and held governments, councils and public institutions to account. Most importantly, it has connected regional communities through a shared understanding of local events. Regional television news has also been a training ground for civic leadership.
Indeed, members on both sides of politics have come through regional television journalism. The member for Paterson spent many years with NBN News in Newcastle. In the New South Wales parliament, the member for Tamworth, Kevin Anderson, built his career with Prime Television.
But the future of local storytelling through regional television news is at risk. The latest example is the sale of NBN television to the WIN network. NBN is not simply another television station.
For more than 60 years it has been one of Australia's most respected regional broadcasters, serving Newcastle, the Hunter, the Mid-North Coast and the Northern Rivers. When the news broke that WIN would acquire NBN television, I publicly called on WIN to make no cuts to programming and no cuts to local journalists, production staff or camera crews following the acquisition.
I stand by that call today. If WIN genuinely believes this acquisition will strengthen local news coverage, it should guarantee that local jobs, journalists and crews will be maintained. I made that call because regional Australians have seen this story before.
Over many years, WIN has acquired valuable regional television assets, promised ongoing local coverage and then progressively reduced local news services, local production and local staffing. In 2019, WIN cut local television news services and jobs in Orange, Wagga, Albury and Hervey Bay. In South Australia, nightly WIN local news services in Mount Gambier and the Riverland were abolished.
In other regional markets, dedicated local bulletins have been replaced with broader regional or statewide services produced further away from the communities they serve. The consequence has been fewer journalists, fewer camera crews, fewer local stories and less accountability. Regional communities have paid the price.
That is why people from the Hunter to the border are sceptical when they hear assurances from WIN that local coverage and staff will be maintained. The concern is not what is promised today. The concern is what remains in five years time.
Importantly, these concerns are not solely mine. MPs from both sides of politics, local government leaders, business groups and community organisations have all expressed concern about the future of NBN news and local journalism in my neck of the woods. That bipartisan concern should tell us something.
This is not about politics; it's about protecting one of regional Australia's most important democratic institutions. Regional Australians have watched media companies extract value from regional assets while reducing the local journalism that made those assets valuable in the first place. This should also prompt us to examine whether our regulatory framework is fit for purpose.
The ACCC may assess whether a merger substantially lessens competition, but regional Australians are asking a different question: does it lessen local journalism? Time and again, media consolidation has been approved, while local newsrooms have shrunk and local journalists have disappeared. Perhaps it's time to consider whether acquisitions involving regional broadcasters should face a stronger public-interest test—one that explicitly considers local journalism capacity, local production and newsroom employment.
Whilst my focus tonight is regional television news, similar pressures are affecting print media. In my own region, concerns have been raised by the Forster Fortnightly regarding broadsheet printing following the closure of printing operations in Tamworth. The true test of the NBN acquisition will not be whether a bulletin runs for 30 minutes or 60 minutes.
The true test will be whether, five years from now, there are more or fewer journalists and camera crews serving communities like Taree, Port Macquarie, Tamworth, Coffs Harbour and Newcastle. That is why my message to WIN tonight is simple: honour your commitments, maintain your journalists, maintain your Canberra crews and maintain your local production capability, because local journalism is not an overhead to be managed; it is a public good that deserves to be protected.
Regional Australia does not simply need local content. Regional Australia needs local journalists, and, if we fail to protect local journalism, we will lose more than news bulletins; we will lose local voices.