Suzanna Sheed
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Seasonal Workers

December 9, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Question without notice – My question is for the Premier. It is becoming clear that in order to harvest our fruit and vegetable crops in the Goulburn Valley producers will need access to Pacific Islander workers under the federal government’s Pacific Islander seasonal workers program.

My question for the Premier is: what is your government doing to facilitate the necessary quarantining for these workers so that they will be able to travel to the Goulburn Valley to pick our fruit?

The shortage of seasonal workers across Victoria is extremely worrying for so many of the growers in my area, many of whom have bumper crops and have been facing years of drought, fluctuating overseas markets and high water prices. Much has been said and done to incentivise local workers to become fruit pickers, but as February and March draw near, the peak picking period for pears and apples in my region is nearing and it is getting critical. To this end, the Pacific Islander seasonal workers program is really extremely important, particularly in the absence of our usual backpacker cohort.

Mr ANDREWS (Premier): I thank the member for Shepparton for her question and for her advocacy on this and all issues that are important to the Goulburn Valley. She is well known and well understood to be a passionate advocate on behalf of her community. The program that the member for Shepparton refers to is of course the federal government granting permission for the entry of certain people from very low or no virus communities in the Pacific. That is largely where the program ends. Being able to provide safe quarantine would fall it would seem to the states, despite the fact that quarantining is in effect a principal responsibility of the federal government. But again, that is not the quarrel that any of us need to be getting into. It is about the practicalities of this. It is about the practicalities of very large numbers of people coming to regional Victoria to complete a very important task, both for the income of growers but also for consumers having an availability of fresh, high-quality produce at an efficient price.

What I can say to the member for Shepparton is that we are working as hard as we possibly can to deal with these issues. They are not simple. They are not easy in any way. Giving effect to the decisions that the commonwealth government in a very broad context has facilitated, if you like, rather than made, is not a simple thing. And yes, there are costs involved if we do not get this right, and one of those costs is potentially many, many coronavirus infections, particularly in communities where there have been, not just for 40 days, no infections, but in some communities months and months without any infections. The balance point is the key point here.

I appreciate the advocacy on behalf of the growers and all of that supply chain that is critically important in the Goulburn Valley. I would say that we, all of us, have got to redouble our efforts to get more and more Victorians to do this work right now and into February, March, April and right out to May. That is our priority at this stage. We will have more to say about quarantining arrangements potentially and some overseas arrivals, but that is incredibly complicated. It is not a matter of expense and it is not a matter of cost; it is a matter of what can be done at scale to the highest standard. As my honourable friend the minister for COVID19 Quarantine Victoria would I am sure have said if she had been asked this question, there are limitations. We do not have an unlimited supply of workers and others, hotels even, to provide that highest standard, best-in-class standard, hotel quarantine. That is what the Victorian community expects.

That is what the government will fundamentally deliver and, despite the laughter of those opposite who could not prove any more clearly their irrelevance to every matter of importance in this state, we will not, unlike them, compromise the safety of this community.

Mr R Smith: On a point of order, Speaker—it seems one of us is missing the other one a little bit too much. But it is okay; I am back. I never really went away.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Andrews interjected.

Mr R Smith: On a point of order, Speaker, under Rulings from The Chair—he is still going. I am actually tired of the bullying that we are getting from the Premier. Under Rulings from the Chair I ask you to—

Ms Neville interjected.

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Police and Emergency Services!

Mr R Smith: Sit down, you sook? Is that what you just said? Sit down, you sook? Is that okay? Is that what we have to put up with here in this chamber? Well, you might have a higher office than me, but you have got no more right to be in this place that I have.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr R Smith: On a point of order, Speaker, the Premier is not permitted during this period of parliamentary procedure to attack the opposition. I ask you to bring him back to answering the question, and he can refrain from the bullying barbs that he likes to throw across the table.

The SPEAKER: Order! I ask members not to interject across the chamber, and I ask the Premier to come back to answering the question.

Mr ANDREWS: As I was saying, these are not simple matters—simple as some may suggest from the opposition—they are complex. We are working through them and will report progress at the appropriate time.

Ms SHEED (Shepparton): Look, I thank you for that response, although time is critical on these, and just this week we had the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Quarantine Fees) Bill 2020 before the house. I think that the issue of quarantining of workers under this scheme is being talked to me about at some length and the cost of what that quarantine might be, so I am just wondering, Premier: what steps and what sort of framework you might anticipate will be in place in relation to the cost of quarantine for workers as opposed to residents currently returning under the current scheme?

Mr ANDREWS (Premier): I thank the member for Shepparton for her supplementary question. I think this is at the heart of the issue. This is an industry where workers are not highly paid. This is an industry where I think it simply cannot be avoided pointing out the fact that we have seen many, many examples of not the highest standards of practice when it comes to health and safety, industrial relations, the protection of workers and the proper pay for a proper day’s work.

That is not necessarily synonymous with some elements of this industry. The notion then that we put a further disincentive—hard work, not well paid often, with not always the highest of standards—does present us with a challenge. If we say to people that they are going to have to pay $3000 to $5000 for the privilege of coming here to work such a job, I fully agree with the member for Shepparton that that will be a real challenge and a real blocker. That is why we have got to work hard, all of us, to get a solution to this. Can I offer to the member for Shepparton: I will facilitate a meeting with the Leader of the Government in the other place, the agriculture minister, to talk through in detail all of our work and what we hope to achieve in partnership with the member for Shepparton

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/default-post-image.png 240 330 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2020-12-09 18:27:012020-12-10 10:40:34Seasonal Workers

Victorian State Government procurement process – Regional Victorian Businesses

December 8, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Constituency Question –  My constituency question is to the Minister for Government Services. Minister, what is the government doing to support regional Victorian businesses to manufacture and grow jobs locally through the government’s procurement system? It is good to see that the government has created this new portfolio. As the independent member for Shepparton, a number of regional businesses have made representations to me about their inability to get government preferred supplier list access. One example is SPC. They supply fruit and vegetables to a number of Victorian public hospitals, and while they have had some success in this, they still have to struggle to get entry in a number of ways. Ensuring regional suppliers and businesses have preferred supplier status for government goods and services is one way to support regional businesses who have been hit hard this year by the coronavirus.

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Shepparton Festival

November 26, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

The Shepparton Festival will hold its 25th anniversary event next year in winter. Titled ‘Unify 2021’ it will be held across the Goulburn Valley from 11 to 27 June. The tagline ‘Unique events in unusual places’ has us all intrigued. Shepparton Festival general manager Louise Tremper says the festival committee is looking forward to delivering a safe and exciting festival in 2021. She said it aims to:

reignite the creativity that our region is so well known for and to giving a boost to our visitor economy.

The festival director, Jamie Lea, says she is very eager to get to work again, as the festival will reach new heights and go beyond expectations to deliver an outstanding experience. She said:

Unify is a call to action on so many levels and the perfect theme for a post-lockdown festival. We are all hungry for a festival, but before we know it, June will be here …

Being a winter festival, it will take advantage of the darkness of night and the magic of projection. The festival will have special input from Bill Kelly, the world-renowned artist, who will bring his creative and artistic skills to bear.

Each year we have been delighted by the venues used and the extraordinary performances that have been brought to our city, and next year will be no exception. The recent cash injection from the state government of $49 000 will be a great boost to the festival, taking it to the next level of professional development. I extend an invitation to our new Minister for Creative Industries, who is here in the chamber, to launch the Shepparton Festival and to formally open it.

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Shepparton Rail Line

November 24, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Members Statement:  In October 2014 when I sat in my legal practice office before I stood for election, I was well aware, along with most of the community, that better rail services were something that Shepparton desperately needed and would truly transform our city. So it was a great pleasure last Thursday to have the Minister for Transport Infrastructure travel to Shepparton to our railway station and announce the final $80 million investment that brings up to something like
$750 million the investment in rail for our region.

Back in 2014 we had been looking at Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong, the Latrobe Valley, with that huge investment in regional rail that had taken place during the decade before that, and were well aware that we had missed out. So it was very much a case of ‘Stand up, Shepparton. It’s our turn’. And so it is with great pleasure that I stand here today knowing that the funding that we need to deliver a service that will really benefit our communities so greatly has been delivered. There is a lot of work to be done. Stage 2 has just started to roll out and stage 3 is now fully funded so that there can simply be a roll-on of the project. This will lead to nine VLocity trains a day to and from Shepparton and Melbourne, delivering great speeds.

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/default-post-image.jpg 300 300 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2020-11-24 16:10:252020-11-25 15:12:14Shepparton Rail Line

Victorian Irrigation Farmers

November 12, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Adjournment debate – My adjournment is for the Minister for Water. The action I seek is that the minister stand up for Victorian irrigation farmers at the next ministerial council meeting of water ministers on Monday, 23 November 2020. There is a concerted effort by many to persuade governments to spend and build a bypass of the Barmah Choke to avoid the natural constraints that exist on the Murray River as it flows through the Barmah and Moira national parks. Demand below the Choke has grown considerably in recent years as a result of unsustainable development in huge plantings of almonds by foreign-owned companies. In addition to this, it is growing as a result of water that was previously used for irrigation above the Choke now being transferred downstream for use by the environment at various sites, including the lower lakes. The Barmah Choke bypass project should be given no credibility when it moves water to a hotter, drier climate, and it will ultimately lead to a market failure in many of those industries that are developing below the Choke.

The Goulburn-Murray irrigation district has been renowned for its diversity of production, particularly with dairy, horticulture and mixed farming, and the diversity has enabled extraordinary productivity, letting us claim to be the food bowl of Victoria. It has a strong, viable future and with completion of the $2 billion Connections Project, it now has a world-class delivery system, delivering half the water it used to, which generates a reduced but stable level of dairy production as well as increased fresh fruit and all other forms of viable cropping and grazing industries that make flexible, strategic use of the available irrigation water.

Minister, we have fought long and hard against buybacks and the current federal water minister has promised that there will be no more buybacks. However, he is not prepared to legislate this and, given that it is policy only, we should bear in mind that it was only over 12 months ago that the then federal water minister, David Littleproud, was threatening water buybacks from our farmers in circumstances where the delivery was not reached by 2024. There has been no leadership from the federal government in seeking solutions and it has now breached the agreement reached in the December 2018 ministerial council meeting of water ministers, where firm guidelines were put in place to ensure that water recovery would not have any negative socio-economic impacts on our farmers. In June this year water ministers reconfirmed that commitment.

Just as recently as last week there were six on-farm projects advertised by the commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, and since September 2019 there have been 12. All these projects take water from our farmers. It is a breach of the agreement, and I ask the Victorian water minister to call the federal minister and his department to account at the forthcoming ministerial council of water ministers.

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/default-post-image.jpg 300 300 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2020-11-12 18:46:062020-11-18 14:48:55Victorian Irrigation Farmers

Shepparton Rail Line Upgrade Works

November 11, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Question without notice – Ms SHEED (Shepparton): My question is for the Minister for Transport Infrastructure. The Victorian state government has funded stages 1 and 2 of the Shepparton line upgrade at a cost of some $356 million. This followed a grassroots campaign calling for faster and better trains between Shepparton and Melbourne. In its recent budget the federal government committed $320 million towards stage 3 of the Shepparton line upgrade, and in the course of his announcement the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development, Mr Michael McCormack, stated that a further $80 million would be contributed by the Victorian government for completion of this stage of the works. Minister, when can we expect an announcement from the Victorian government for that additional $80 million investment to enable works to continue seamlessly through from stage 2 to stage 3 and provide the VLocity trains we have so long waited for?

Ministers response – Ms ALLAN (Bendigo East—Leader of the House, Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop):I thank the Independent member for Shepparton for her question, but also I think it is worth putting on the record she has been tirelessly consistent, since her first days of walking into this chamber, in her efforts to make sure that there were funds secured to get better rail services for the Shepparton community.

As the member for Shepparton pointed out in her question, we can only be talking about and pushing for funding for stage 3 because it has been the Andrews Labor government that has committed to stage 1 and stage 2 in upgrading the Shepparton rail services, with a generous budget allocation from the Treasurer of $356 million for those stages of work. I also remind the house that it was only an Andrews Labor government who made the commitment at the 2018 election for the nine daily return services that the Shepparton community had been campaigning for.

Now, when we were asked by the federal government ahead of their budget deliberations—and, can I say, I was really pleased with the positive interactions I had with the Deputy Prime Minister and the encouragement we had to put forward our priority list of projects for the federal government’s consideration in setting their budget—stage 3 works for the Shepparton rail upgrade were firmly on our list because we want to see this project delivered. And I was delighted on federal budget night to see that indeed the federal government had agreed to our request for funding of this project. I again commend the member for Shepparton for her efforts, because there is no doubt Shepparton has long deserved—

Members interjecting.

I will get to that. There is no doubt that Shepparton has long deserved a better rail service, and I have been delighted to work since 2014 with the member for Shepparton to make this happen. I would like to congratulate that grassroots campaign that she talked about as well, because that community had to be loud and clear in their demands for a better rail service because they had been ignored for far too long—ignored even during a period of time when the Shepparton community had not one but two local members of Parliament sitting at the cabinet table able to make this sort of decision to allocate funding for better rail services.

The Liberal and National government MPs failed to do that despite sitting at the cabinet table. I also note—the member for Murray Plains has prompted me on this—that there has been a Johnnycome-lately to this issue. The federal member for Nicholls was pretty happy to come out and try and claim credit for this funding. I am pretty confident he did not do a lot of heavy lifting for this funding, but he was very happy to take credit for getting funds from his government. I am delighted; success has many mothers and fathers. The most important outcome here is there is a firm commitment to nine daily services to Shepparton. It has taken the Andrews Labor government and the Independent member for Shepparton to bring this about, and we will have more to say about our contribution very, very soon.

Supplementary question – Ms SHEED (Shepparton): Minister, I was recently approached by an elderly constituent who asked me whether she would live long enough to see VLocity trains on the Shepparton line. I am keen to assure her that she will. Can you tell people in my community what the time line for delivery of this project is and when they can expect stages 2 and 3 to be completed?

Ministers response -Ms ALLAN (Bendigo East—Leader of the House, Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop): In answering the member for Shepparton’s question and with all respect to her constituent, I am not entirely sure the age of her constituent. However, with the excellent health care she can now receive from the new Shepparton hospital—another great project delivered by the Andrews Labor government in partnership with the Shepparton community and with the strong advocacy of the Independent member for Shepparton—I really do hope that her constituent can see these trains running because we have already begun work. We have already added a daily return service to the Shepparton community because we have invested in the stabling facilities to allow this to happen.

We have already got our rail experts and engineers out in the corridor doing the geotechnical work on key level crossing sites as part of stage 2, and track works will be commencing shortly. The member for Shepparton might want to tell her constituent that VLocity trains will be running on the line for the first time when these works are completed at the end of 2022. We do want to seamlessly transition to stage 3. However, we will have more to say about that shortly

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/default-post-image.jpg 300 300 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2020-11-11 16:54:032020-11-13 16:54:30Shepparton Rail Line Upgrade Works

Shepparton and Mooroopna Town Bus Review

November 10, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Constituency Question – My question is for the Minister for Public Transport. What is the government doing to progress a review of the Shepparton and Mooroopna town bus networks? The network has had no substantial update since 2009 and indeed the last review was in 2006, some 14 years ago. Many other towns have had more than two reviews in that time. Services in Shepparton and Mooroopna are infrequent, running only hourly between 8.00 am and 6.00 pm on weekdays and with limited services on Saturdays and none on Sundays, and they do not coordinate with our regional train services in many cases. There is no direct bus route from Shepparton to Mooroopna. I have raised this a number of times and I am still waiting for a review to take place. This is becoming urgent because we have many new facilities developing in the town and new growth areas on the edges of Mooroopna and Shepparton. The current system is inadequate, and I would ask the minister to address this as soon as possible.

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/default-post-image.jpg 300 300 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2020-11-10 16:55:152020-11-13 17:01:50Shepparton and Mooroopna Town Bus Review

Justice Legislation Amendment (Supporting Victims and Other Matters) Bill 2020

October 29, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

I rise to make a contribution on the Justice Legislation Amendment (Supporting Victims and Other Matters) Bill 2020. This legislation is making changes to a number of acts of Parliament. It introduces measures to include reforms to further the rights of victims and their ability to speak of their experiences. It really strengthens victims of crime legislation as well. In addition to this, it amends the Defamation Act 2005 and the Limitation of Actions Act 1958 in relation to the implementation of the model national code. There are amendments to the Corrections Act 1986, the Forest Acts 1958 and various workplace legislation. A significant part of the bill does go to the issue of supporting victims of crime. More particularly it relates to those victims of sexual assault crimes and their ability to tell of their experiences should they wish to do so.

We have been told by the Attorney-General in her second-reading speech that the government heard from many victim-survivors and their advocates as well as other stakeholders. This is a particularly sensitive area and difficult for many to speak of. There are many victim-survivors who are adamant that they want to speak of their experiences, and similarly there are others who fiercely want to protect their right to privacy. Sexual assault victims have suffered extreme trauma, and so often they are haunted by the experiences that come with them for the rest of their lives. I pay my respects to all of those who have suffered in this way and acknowledge their right to speak. It is an important part of their journey, but it also contributes to society’s better understanding of what is so often gender-based violent crime.

I am advised that further work will be conducted in terms of wider consultations in the months ahead, recognising that this can be such a complex area to legislate in. There are many differing views, and we have heard a lot of those this week. I think it is really important that we take into account the range of views, and I understand that the government is going to move on with even further consultation because it is so important that we get this right. I would say to the Attorney-General: in doing this please remember our regional areas. We too have all these issues. We have a centre against sexual assault in Shepparton which does important work along with our courts, lawyers, legal aid—all these organisations often work with and are very close to victims of crime as they go through their processes.

I have noted the reasoned amendment and the house amendments put forward by the member for Caulfield, and I will not be supporting those. I think it is important that we get on with it, even though there is more to be done. While this process perhaps could have been better managed—it seems to have hit some hurdles this week and caused some upset and controversy generally in the community—I do trust that moving forward we can come to a solution that will give people some better ways of resolving these issues.

One of the complaints I have heard just on radio is that the need to go to court can be prohibitive in terms of the costs of lawyering up, in a sense. I do think that this is an area where a victim’s right to go to court should be publicly funded. Now, we do have legal aid and we do have victims of crime services. If that is not the case, I think it is one area where this is not a case of means-testing people. It is a case of people who have suffered greatly who are going to have to go through the trauma and who need support and assistance—and often legal assistance—to do that. I think we should look hard at providing a fund to enable that to happen as part of any further amendments going forward.

I want to make a few comments in relation to the Forests Act 1958. This current bill will enable the secretary to enter into agreements with Fire Rescue Victoria relating to land which falls within the zones that the fire services will manage. Risks of bushfires remain with us and will always be us. The devastating bushfires of the last Christmas period are still really fresh in our memories even though they have been overtaken by so many other things during the course of the year. I want to raise concerns about areas between Shepparton and Mooroopna that are currently at high fire risk. We have had a wonderful season in terms of rainfall across northern Victoria in many parts. We have got fabulous crops growing. The fruit season is looking promising despite the fact that we are struggling to find the workers we will need to pick those crops. But there are many areas—roadsides, public lands, even private properties—that have incredibly tall grass that is currently drying off. It will not be long until we have over 40-degree days in our region, and it will be too late then to do anything about removing, slashing, doing safe burning—these sorts of things.

Now, in between Shepparton and Mooroopna we have part of the Lower Goulburn National Park. It is forest land. I walk there with my dogs on a very regular basis—and very carefully these days because of the risk of snakes. But I have observed for myself and just last year took a trip with some of our CFA officers to observe what was happening there. The tracks need to be looked at—they need to be in a good state of repair so that fire trucks can get in—but more importantly there is a window now to do something about clearing away tall grass.

There are huge areas of young saplings that should not be there anyway, because they impede the natural side of the forest, so there is work that needs to be done, and I would ask the government to, in considering this, put in their minds future works that are needed near regional areas. We only have to see what happened in California—town after town after town burnt to the ground—and even here in Victoria and New South Wales with towns and many houses in towns decimated. We are having fires like never before, and we need to be prepared for them. Along the Goulburn River there are houses and suburbs effectively just on the other side of the river where there is very overgrown forest. Gemmill Swamp backs onto—about from here to that wall, say 50 metres—a whole row of houses. It would just go up like a bomb. It is so overgrown and so in need of some form of forest management.

We have just seen the release yesterday of the Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements. The report was presented to the Governor-General just yesterday. It is otherwise known as the bushfires royal commission—the one conducted by the federal government. I do hope we will see the results of that soon, because one of the big issues where there is contention is about this issue of slow burning, whether it be Indigenous burns or by forest or fire services. There needs to be clarity about that. We do not need to just continue to have arguments about it and do nothing. There needs to be a resolution.

Another issue I would just like to mention is that at the moment the Shepparton police station is completely being rebuilt. It has relocated; it is a new fire station. Shepparton’s is one of the few stations that has had an integrated capacity between CFA and Fire Services Victoria, and they will soon be moving into the new fire station. But people have contacted me about the fact that it was intended always that the CFA volunteers would have a four-berth shed built on that same property where the new fire station is currently being built. This has not happened. It is getting near completion, and I am hearing from members of our community who have shown a lot of good faith in coming together to give us an integrated fire service that they are worried it will not happen. And so I raise that just as something that does need to be looked at. Somewhere in head office someone is not paying attention. It needs to be attended to, and I would ask that the goodwill of people who have come together in the Shepparton region to provide our fire services is taken into account. Issues of trust are very important, and I regard that as being a very important issue in our community as well. So on that note I would say that I support the bill.

Click here to view this record on Hansard

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Vale John Gray

October 29, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Members Statement:

Today I pay tribute to John Gray, a respected civic leader and friend from the Shepparton community who recently died at the age of 82. He was an educator who did his teachers training at Burwood Teachers College and eventually was sent to St Germains, a small hamlet near Shepparton. Over the years he taught at Shepparton North Technical College, Tatura Primary School and then Mooroopna Park Primary School. John served as a councillor for the Shire of Rodney from 1972 to 1986 and was shire president four times. He was a councillor for the Greater Shepparton City Council from 1997 to 2005.

John was described as a councillor for the people. His interest in local government extended beyond his elected years, and he always maintained a keen interest in it. He was regular columnist with the Shepparton News for 33 years, commentating on current local issues up until the time of his death. He had a remarkable recall of the events occurring within the Shepparton district and had an extensive network connection at every level.

John made a significant contribution to the Mooroopna Cricket Club. He was a former club president, treasurer, life member and also best club person. The John Gray Oval and John Gray Avenue were named in honour of him and his contributions. He served on countless community boards and committees. He was a man of great generosity with a sharp wit and good humour and has left a long-lasting impression on our community. We are all the better for having known him. I offer my sincere condolences to his wife, Barbara, and children, Kate, Cam and Meg. Vale, John Gray.

Click here to view this record on Hansard

https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/default-post-image.jpg 300 300 Suzanna Sheed https://suzannasheed.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Sheed-Logo-V2.png Suzanna Sheed2020-10-29 13:41:522020-11-11 14:42:11Vale John Gray

Regional Media

October 28, 2020/0 Comments/in Parliament /by Suzanna Sheed

Matter of Public Importance – proposed and led by Suzanna Sheed MP

Before the drought, before the bushfires, before coronavirus, regional media was in trouble. As evidenced by many media reports—and that is somewhat of an irony—the closure of Victorian and Australian regional media outlets has been accelerating. Following decades of contraction, we are now witnessing takeovers, consolidations and closures like never before.

In just June last year WIN Television station closed its WIN News bureaus in Orange, Wagga Wagga, Albury and Bundaberg. Just this year we lost our Channel 9 reporter from Shepparton. At the start of March it was announced that AAP would soon cease, with the loss of 180 media jobs. This was shocking news in the media industry. At the eleventh hour it was bought by a philanthropic group of investors and will continue to produce but with a much smaller staff.

Earlier in the year it looked like here in Victoria we would lose Mildura’s Sunraysia Daily, the Swan Hill Guardian, the Gannawarra Times from Kerang and the Loddon Times in Loddon Mallee. Most of these have been able to continue again by reducing their capacity and publication dates. This year News Corp announced the suspension of printing of 60 regional newspapers across the country, with only three of them resuming print. This is part of the News Corp digital-only strategy, where a reporter is locally embedded in a region that a digital masthead covers. Presently they have trialled 16 of these sorts of publications with only one reporter in each community.

It is not clear whether this strategy will continue and roll out for some 76 other print publications, but if so, there will be a massive loss of journalists in our regions.

It can be difficult to identify how many newspapers and television and radio outlets have been closed down in regional areas, or left, in recent years. The Australian newsroom mapping project, which is conducted by the Public Interest Journalism Initiative, suggests that there have been contractions of about 192 newsrooms and 54 expansions and a net loss therefore of 138 newsrooms. This may or may not be accurate because we hear anecdotally of many others.

These closures cannot be measured in raw dollar terms. They impact our entire communities. These closures come at tremendous cost culturally, economically and even democratically. The ABC performs a vital role in regional and rural communities, and that is evidenced by their bushfire crisis coverage and by an ongoing dedicated presence in the bush via television, radio and online. But the ABC is a stretched service. It has nowhere near the media resources of our combined country and other media organisations that currently employ journalists in the hundreds across our state.

Rural and regional media place journalists in the courtrooms, they place them in council chambers, they follow state and federal politics and they hold local, state and federal politicians to account. Regional journalists hold me to account, and so they should. Rarely a day goes by when my office is not fielding questions from a local media organisation—television, radio, print and online—on the policies held by me, my peers, the state government and local leaders and on the happenings in my community and the direction we are travelling.

They publicise public campaigns. I dare say that without the fantastic media coverage we had, our 2015 All Aboard campaign, when hundreds of members of our community jumped on the train to Melbourne to protest for better rail services from Shepparton to Melbourne, would not have been successful—had it not been for the extraordinary media coverage that we were able to harness. That campaign amounted to stages 1 and 2 being fully funded, with a further $320 million recently announced by the federal government, an investment that will produce nine VLocity trains from Shepparton to Melbourne—over $600 million worth of investment out of a community campaign.

Local newspapers, television and radio gave both proponents and opponents of the new Greater Shepparton Secondary College a forum to express their views loudly and clearly. This is a valuable form of communication between me and my constituents, because I do not get to dictate the terms. I am challenged, I am required to explain myself and my thoughts and politics, and my words are weighed up against those of others in the game along with those of experts who hold their own opinions. The audience is truly enriched by this process and the function of journalists as they present the multiple views across so many audiences. This coverage allows the reader, watcher or listener to judge the merits of whatever argument is being made in context rather than someone like myself just dictating the terms of it.

But I am not just a subject of the local news; I am also an avid consumer. As a member of my community I am connected to and saddened by the loss of each and every journalist. Previously that loss was felt when one of ours went off to expand their career from the regions to the cities—people like Barrie Cassidy, who started writing for a small weekly newspaper in his home town of Chiltern and later went on to the Border Mail, then to the Shepparton News before going on to the Herald Sun and the ABC and having a very distinguished career, before his retirement. Annika Smethurst started her regional reporting career at the Bendigo Weekly. So many others—Tony Wright, Zoe Daniel, Ben Knight; I could go on at length—all started in regional newsrooms, where they learned their professions, crafted their skills and learned how to present the news.

We want people to succeed in the country and we want them to go off and do great things, but their loss is felt greatly. When they leave, when they lose their jobs and they have nowhere else to go, we lose them from the profession. Many are now looking for work in fields other than their chosen profession. This devalues their education, their training and the experience they have built up over years. Country journalists, however, do not just serve up politics and court and cover the local community. They do cover those things. They cover netball, sport, cricket. They cover BMX and motocross and fishing and equestrian—all part of the local mix of our communities.

They venture into our schools and our aged-care facilities, our churches and our clubs. They attend our local festivals and events, our plays and our musicals. Our local Shepparton Theatre Arts Group often has the talent of local journalists, such as ABC’s Matt Dowling, strut the stage in many performances. They participate. They do not just report on sporting events; they participate in that local sport. These journalists cover our culture. They explain it, they curate it, they disseminate it and they store it. These journalists also form a guard against corruption.

Studies out of the UK, the US and Australia indicate that where local media closes, communities suffer a commensurate rise in corruption, political disengagement and a heightened distrust in public institutions. The author of a 2016 King’s College London study, Dr Martin Moore, observes:

We can all have our own social media account, but when local papers are depleted or in some cases simply don’t exist, people lose a communal voice. They feel angry, not listened to and more likely to believe malicious rumour.

And haven’t we seen that.

In 2019 Australia’s Public Interest Journalism Initiative found that a third of local government areas reported no journalists attending local government meetings. Last year’s Australian Local Government Association annual report lamented that a large part of local government business goes entirely unscrutinised and unreported. In the United States the term ‘news desert’ has been coined. A recent report by Harvard Business Review claims:

The demise of local newspapers … is also linked to a rise in local corruption and an increase in polarization, as news consumers rely more on partisan-inflected national outlets for their information.

The academic evidence has been building for decades and supports the notion that local media is both vital and in crisis.

So what is going wrong? Ask any editor or advertising manager and you will receive a different answer, which amounts to the same answer. The editor will tell you that the media giants, primarily Google and Facebook, are stealing their content, while the ad manager will tell you that the same entities are taking their revenue. It amounts to a serious attack on our vulnerable newsrooms that they cannot fend off and becomes particularly concerning when considering Google and Facebook do not even create content but merely collate it and serve it up in one form or another. Google and Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram and all the other social media giants will never replace the local knowledge, the curiosity and the dedication to journalistic ethics of those employed in the media within our communities. We are now coming to see that they craft and manipulate information to suit their long-term needs. For those of you who have not yet watched The Social Dilemma, a documentary exploring the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm at their own work, you should do so straightaway.

For about two decades local media have been struggling with how to transform themselves into digital platforms to varying degrees. Many have tried. They are trying to be innovative. They are branching out into data journalism, into blogs and into podcasts and are creating content to try and please the broader audience. They have experimented with paywalls, and many during the COVID crisis have taken down their paywalls just so that their communities can access information freely. And yet now with the coronavirus they are facing their very own crisis—just when we need them the most. Simultaneously, sources of advertising—the precious revenue that keeps journalists, photographers, camera operators, editors, subeditors and producers paid and the news flowing—have plummeted as local businesses shut down or close or simply minimise their expenditure during COVID.

Governments can help, and in this regard I think it is important to note that at a local government level we have seen the significant removal of local government advertising from our local newspapers. Things like annual business plans and budgets, rates declarations and variations, service charges—I could go on—all the sorts of things that you would normally see in the classifieds section of a local newspaper have now been removed and put over on the local government website.

That is not where people go to see those sorts of things. It is a much more random exposure than people in the community want and demand. If it is not in that scanning of a newspaper, it is often entirely missed, and again that is that notion of lack of scrutiny generally.

Local government can play a significant part in all of this by resuming advertising, but I am very concerned to see that our current Local Government Act 2020 actually removes any obligation that used to be there on local government to advertise in newspapers, and I think that must be rectified. You might wonder what governments have been doing about all of this. The very existence of Save Our Voices, the website advocating for change to preserve regional media, points to a lack of government engagement on this topic.

There are things that can be done. Firstly, we could all subscribe to our local newspapers, print and online, and support our local radio stations and news media rooms. Secondly, local government could do as I have said—publicly advertise. The state government can continue its support through advertising. But the one thing that is very clear is that we have an extraordinarily outdated Australian broadcasting act. It has been there for a very long time, with only a small bit of reform along the way. I am hearing from many people of the need for an absolute revamp of that legislation. It barely takes into account the fact that the internet is here, and it has been here for a long time. Organisations like Southern Cross Austereo, Prime, WIN and ACM have banded together to form this Save Our Voices website, but they are really struggling to get governments to come to the party to talk to them, to talk about the one-to-a-market rule and some of these really important initiatives. Lowering the threshold for public interest journalism grants is an important feature of what could be done. There is an opportunity for tax rebates. There are all sorts of things that governments could do, particularly at a federal level.

In closing, I would just like to say that the result of the ongoing contraction of media diversity in our regional areas means that there will be less transparency, less access to information for those who are not deliberately going in search of it and ultimately a lot less accountability. This denigrates our democratic processes. To be able to participate you must first be informed and you must be educated. If we wish to maintain a healthy and vibrant media now and when we emerge on the other side of this health crisis, regional media need the support of government and the support of their communities. The alternative is a future without regional media, and that is a future I do not want and neither should you.

Click here to view this record on Hansard

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